Text -- Leviticus 13:9-17 (NET)

A Swelling on the Skin

13:9 “When someone has a diseased infection, he must be brought to the priest. 13:10 The priest will then examine it, and if a white swelling is on the skin, it has turned the hair white, and there is raw flesh in the swelling, 13:11 it is a chronic disease on the skin of his body, so the priest is to pronounce him unclean. The priest must not merely quarantine him, for he is unclean. 13:12 If, however, the disease breaks out on the skin so that the disease covers all the skin of the person with the infection from his head to his feet, as far as the priest can see, 13:13 the priest must then examine it, and if the disease covers his whole body, he is to pronounce the person with the infection clean. He has turned all white, so he is clean. 13:14 But whenever raw flesh appears in it he will be unclean, 13:15 so the priest is to examine the raw flesh and pronounce him unclean– it is diseased. 13:16 If, however, however, the raw flesh once again turns white, then he must come to the priest. 13:17 The priest will then examine it, and if the infection has turned white, the priest is to pronounce the person with the infection clean– he is clean.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Lev 13:9

¹ tn Heb “When there is an infection of disease in a man.” The term for “a man; a human being” (אָדָם, ’adam; see the note on Lev 1:2 and cf. v. 2 above) refers to any person among “mankind,” male or female. For the rendering “diseased infection” see the note on v. 2 above.

NET Notes: Lev 13:10

¹ tn Heb “and the priest shall see.” The pronoun “it” is unexpressed, but it should be assumed and it refers to the infection (cf. the note on v. 8 above).

² tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV).

³ tn Heb “and rawness [i.e., something living] of living flesh is in the swelling”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “quick raw flesh.”

NET Notes: Lev 13:11

¹ tn The term rendered here “chronic” is a Niphal participle meaning “grown old” (HALOT 448 s.v. II ישׁן nif.2). The idea is that this is an old enduring skin disease that keeps on developing or recurring.

² tn Heb “in the skin of his flesh” as opposed to the head or the beard (v. 29; cf. v. 2 above).

³ tn This is the declarative Piel of the verb טָמֵא (tame’, cf. the note on v. 3 above).

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ sn Instead of just the normal quarantine isolation, this condition calls for the more drastic and enduring response stated in Lev 13:45-46. Raw flesh, of course, sometimes oozes blood to one degree or another, and blood flows are by nature impure (see, e.g., Lev 12 and 15; cf. J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 191).

NET Notes: Lev 13:12

¹ tn Heb “And if spreading [infinitive absolute] it spreads out [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p.

² tn Heb “all the skin of the infection,” but see v. 4 above.

³ tn Heb “to all the appearance of the eyes of the priest.”

NET Notes: Lev 13:13

¹ tn Heb “and the priest shall see.” The pronoun “it” is unexpressed, but it should be assumed and it refers to the infection (cf. the note on v. 8 above).

² tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

³ tn Heb “he shall pronounce the infection clean,” but see v. 4 above. Also, this is another use of the declarative Piel of the verb טָהֵר (taher; cf. the note on v. 6 above).

⁴ tn Heb “all of him has turned white, and he is clean.”

NET Notes: Lev 13:14

¹ tn Heb “and in the day of there appears in it living flesh.” Some English versions render this as “open sores” (cf. NCV, TEV, NLT).

NET Notes: Lev 13:15

¹ tn Heb “and the priest shall see the living flesh.”

² tn This is the declarative Piel of the verb טָמֵא (tame’; cf. the note on v. 3 above).

NET Notes: Lev 13:16

¹ tn Heb “Or if/when.”

² tn Heb “the living flesh returns and is turned/changed to white.” The Hebrew verb “returns” is שׁוּב (shuv), which often functions adverbially when combined with a second verb as it is here (cf. “and is turned”) and, in such cases, is usually rendered “again” (see, e.g., GKC 386-87 §120.g). Another suggestion is that here שׁוּב means “to recede” (cf., e.g., 2 Kgs 20:9), so one could translate “the raw flesh recedes and turns white.” This would mean that the new “white” skin “has grown over” the raw flesh (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 79).

NET Notes: Lev 13:17

¹ tn Heb “and the priest shall see it.”

² tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

³ tn Heb “the priest shall pronounce the infection clean,” but see v. 4 above. Also, this is another use of the declarative Piel of the verb טָהֵר (taher, cf. the note on v. 6 above).