Leviticus 13:4

4 But if the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and look not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white, the priest shall shut up [him that hath] the sore seven days.

Leviticus 13:4 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 13:4

If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh
The Targum of Jonathan is, white as chalk in the skin of his flesh; but other Jewish writers make the whiteness of the bright spot to be the greatest of all, like that of snow; (See Gill on Leviticus 13:2):

and in sight [be] not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof
be not turned white;
though it be a bright spot, and be very white, yet these two marks not appearing, it cannot be judged a leprosy, at most it is only suspicious: wherefore

then the priest, shall shut up [him that hath] the plague seven
days;
in whom the bright spot is, and of whom there is a suspicion of the plague of leprosy, but it is not certain; and therefore, in order to take time, and get further knowledge, the person was to be shut up from all company and conversation for the space of seven days; by which time it might be supposed, as Ben Gersom observes, that the case and state of the leprosy (if it was one) would be altered; and Aben Ezra remarks, that most diseases change or alter on the seventh day.

Leviticus 13:4 In-Context

2 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising or a scab, or bright spot, and it become in the skin of his flesh a sore [as] of leprosy, then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests.

3 And when the priest looketh on the sore in the skin of the flesh, and the hair in the sore is turned white, and the sore looketh deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is the sore of leprosy; and the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean.

4 But if the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and look not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white, the priest shall shut up [him that hath] the sore seven days.

5 And the priest shall look on him the seventh day; and behold, in his sight, the sore remaineth as it was, the sore hath not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up seven days a second time.

6 And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day, and behold, the sore is become pale and the sore hath not spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is a scab; and he shall wash his garments and be clean.