Leviticus 13:21

Summary

The verse describes a priest's examination of a skin mark: if it lacks white hair, is not lower than the surrounding skin, and appears faded, the priest is to quarantine the person for seven days. This continues a diagnostic sequence for evaluating skin conditions under priestly inspection.

Key words

• yir'Ennah ("he will see it", H7200G) — qal imperfect with 3rd person feminine suffix; expresses the priest's future/repeated act of examining the mark itself.
• 'ein ("there is not", H0369) — construct-state negative existential noun, used twice in the verse ('ein-bah, 'einEnnah) to negate the presence of a feature.
• shefaLah ("deep/low", H8217) — feminine singular adjective agreeing with the implied feminine subject (the mark), describing its depth relative to the skin.
• khehah ("dull/faded", H3544) — feminine singular adjective, the final descriptive term before the verdict clause.
• hisgiro ("he will shut him up", H5462) — hiphil sequential perfect with 3rd person masculine suffix; the causative form marks the priest's active decision to confine, continuing the narrative chain begun by the vav.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conditional ve'Im ("and if") governing the priest's inspection verb yir'Ennah. The object suffix on this verb (-nah, "her/it") refers back to the skin affection under discussion, grammatically feminine, consistent with the feminine adjectives that follow (shefaLah, khehah).

The negated clauses are built on the construct noun 'ein, which functions as an existential negator ("there is no X of..."). The first instance, 'ein-bah se'ar laVan ("there is no white hair in it"), addresses one diagnostic criterion. The second, 'einEnnah min-ha'Or ("it is not [lower] than the skin"), carries its own pronominal suffix (-nah) and is paired with the preceding adjective shefaLah ("deep") to state that the mark does not sink below the skin surface. The clause closes with the independent pronoun hi' ("it/she") followed by the adjective khehah ("dull"), giving a third and separate observation about the mark's appearance.

The apodosis begins with the narrative vav on hisgiro, marking the logical/temporal continuation from the priest's observations to his action. The hiphil stem of hisgiro denotes a causative act — the priest causes the person to be shut in — for a period expressed by the construct numeral shiv'At yaMim ("seven of days").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew shefaLah 'einEnnah min-ha'Or ("it is not deep from the skin") with ταπεινὸν μὴ ᾖ ἀπὸ τοῦ δέρματος τοῦ χρωτός ("let it not be low from the skin of the complexion"), adding a second noun (χρωτός, "complexion/color") not present in the Hebrew construct phrase. The Vulgate's cicatrix subobscura ("a somewhat dim scar") introduces the noun cicatrix ("scar") to render the adjective khehah ("dull"), where the Hebrew simply uses an adjective with the pronoun hi' and no noun for "scar."