Leviticus 13:21

21 That if the hair is of the former colour, and the sign of the wound is some-deal dark, and is not lower than the flesh beside, the priest shall close the man seven days; (But if the hair is of the former colour, and the mark of the plague is somewhat dark, and is not lower than the flesh beside it, the priest shall enclose the man for seven days;)

Leviticus 13:21 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 13:21

But if the priest look on it
Upon a person in a like case as first described, having had a boil, and that healed, and afterwards a white swelling, or a bright spot in the place of it: and, behold, [there be] no white hairs therein;
not two hairs turned white, as Gersom interprets it: and [if] it [be] not lower than the skin;
the bright spot not lower than the skin; not having got into the flesh, only skin deep: the Targum of Jonathan is, not lower in whiteness than the skin; for the bright spot is described as white, and so the rising or swelling, ( Leviticus 13:19 ) ; but [be] somewhat dark;
or rather "contracted"; to which spreading is opposed in the next verse; (See Gill on Leviticus 13:6); then the priest shall shut him up seven days;
to wait and see whether it will spread or not: a boil and burning, the Jews say, make a man unclean in one week, and by two signs, the white hair, and the spreading; by the white hair, both at the beginning and at the end of the week after dismission, and by spreading at the end of the week after it F17.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 Misn. Negaim, c. 3. sect. 4.

Leviticus 13:21 In-Context

19 and the place of the botch, or a fell sore (or the sore), appeareth white, either red, the man shall be brought to the priest;
20 and when the priest seeth the place of the leprosy (to be) lower than the other flesh, and the hairs turned into whiteness, the priest shall defoul him, that is, (shall) deem him (to be) foul, (the priest shall pronounce him to be defiled, or unclean); for the wound of leprosy is bred in the botch [for a plague of leprosy is sprung in the botch].
21 That if the hair is of the former colour, and the sign of the wound is some-deal dark, and is not lower than the flesh beside, the priest shall close the man seven days; (But if the hair is of the former colour, and the mark of the plague is somewhat dark, and is not lower than the flesh beside it, the priest shall enclose the man for seven days;)
22 and soothly, if his sore waxeth, the priest shall deem the man to be (a) leper; (and if his sore groweth, or spreadeth, the priest shall pronounce him to be a leper;)
23 forsooth if it standeth in his place, it is a sign of a botch, and the man shall be clean. (but if it standeth in its place, it is the sign of a boil, or of a sore, and the priest shall pronounce him to be clean.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.