Leviticus 13:55

55 The priest shall examine the diseased article after it has been washed. If the diseased spot has not changed color, though the disease has not spread, it is unclean; you shall burn it in fire, whether the leprous spot is on the inside or on the outside.

Leviticus 13:55 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 13:55

And the priest shall look on the plague after it is washed,
&c.] That is, on the second seventh day, or thirteenth day from his first inspection of it: and, behold, [if] the plague has not changed its colour; and the
plague be not spread, it [is] unclean, thou shalt burn it in the fire;
if it remains just as it was at first, very green or very red, and has not diminished of its colour at all, nor changed from one colour to another, although it should not have spread itself, yet it is defiled, and to be burnt without the camp, as before; that which spreads itself here and there, it is to be burnt: it [is] after inward, [whether] it [be] bare within or without;
that is, whether it be threadbare on the wrong or right side of the garment, the nap being eaten off by the leprosy; which shows it to be a fretting, eating, and corroding one: in the Hebrew text it is, "in the boldness of the hinder", or "in the baldness of the fore part"; they are the same words which are used of the boldness of the back part and fore part of the head, ( Leviticus 13:42 Leviticus 13:43 ) ; the nap being off either of the outer and right side of the cloth, or of the inner and wrong side, made it look like a bald head, whether before or behind.

Leviticus 13:55 In-Context

53 If the priest makes an examination, and the disease has not spread in the clothing, in warp or woof or in anything of skin,
54 the priest shall command them to wash the article in which the disease appears, and he shall put it aside seven days more.
55 The priest shall examine the diseased article after it has been washed. If the diseased spot has not changed color, though the disease has not spread, it is unclean; you shall burn it in fire, whether the leprous spot is on the inside or on the outside.
56 If the priest makes an examination, and the disease has abated after it is washed, he shall tear the spot out of the cloth, in warp or woof, or out of skin.
57 If it appears again in the garment, in warp or woof, or in anything of skin, it is spreading; you shall burn with fire that in which the disease appears.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. A term for several skin diseases; precise meaning uncertain
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.