Leviticus 13:20

Summary

The verse describes the priest's examination of a skin condition following a boil: if the affected spot appears deeper than the surrounding skin and the hair within it has turned white, the priest pronounces the person ritually unclean, identifying it as a tzaraat-type infection that has broken out at the site of the boil.

Key words

• ra'Ah ("he will see", H7200G) — qal sequential perfect; continues the narrative chain describing the priest's required action of visual examination.
• mar'Eh ("appearance", H4758) — masculine singular construct, "appearance of [it]"; paired with the suffix ha ("its") it refers to the visual quality of the spot being assessed.
• shaFal ("[is] deep", H8217) — adjective describing the spot's appearance as lower/sunken relative to ha'Or ("the skin", H5785).
• ha.Fakh ("it has turned", H2015) — qal perfect, marking a completed change of state, here applied to the hair (se'aRah, "its hair", H8181) turning laVan ("white", H3836).
• timme'O ("he will declare unclean", H2930A) — piel sequential perfect; the piel stem gives a declarative/causative sense — the priest actively renders a verdict, not merely observes.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of sequential perfect verbs (ra'Ah, timme'O) linked by the narrative vav, which in Biblical Hebrew narrative syntax carries forward the sequence of actions: the priest sees, then declares unclean. Between these two main verbs sits a nominal clause introduced by hinneh ("there!", H2009), a device that shifts perspective to present the visual details as if seen directly through the priest's eyes: "and behold, its appearance is deep from the skin, and its hair has turned white." This construction suspends the main narrative action to focus attention on diagnostic criteria before the verdict is rendered.

The two conditions — mar'eh ("appearance") being shafal ("deep") relative to ha'or ("the skin"), and se'arah ("its hair") having "turned" (hafakh) lavan ("white") — are stated as completed facts (perfect aspect) that trigger the priest's declarative act. The final clause, nega'-tzara'at hi' ("it is a plague of tzara'at"), uses the independent pronoun hi' ("it/she", H1931) for emphasis, naming the condition explicitly. The last verb, parachah ("it has broken out", H6524B), is grammatically feminine, agreeing with the feminine noun tzara'at ("skin disease", H6883), and situates the outbreak specifically bashechin ("in the boil", H7822) — the antecedent condition mentioned in the preceding verses.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders shafal ("deep") as "humiliorem carne reliqua" (lower than the surrounding flesh), making explicit a comparison the Hebrew leaves more compact ("deep from the skin"). The LXX uses λέπρα for tzara'at, a term that in Greek medical usage denotes a broader category of skin conditions than the specific Hebrew term. The Vulgate's "plaga...orta est" ("the plague has arisen") corresponds to parachah ("it has broken out"), both conveying an eruptive sense, though the Hebrew verb's feminine agreement with tzara'at is not reflected in Latin or Greek grammar.