Leviticus 13:36

Summary

The verse describes a second priestly inspection of a netek ("scall", H5424) skin condition. If the priest observes that it has spread in the skin, he no longer needs to check for yellow hair, because the person is declared unclean on the basis of the spreading alone.

Key words

• ra'ahu ("he will see it", H7200G) — qal sequential perfect with 3ms suffix "it"; continues the narrative sequence of prior verses, marking this as the next act in the examination procedure.
• pasah ("it has spread", H6581) — qal perfect, denoting a completed state of spreading already observed at the moment of the second look.
• yevaqqer ("he will seek/examine", H1239) — piel imperfect, an intensive form implying a deliberate, careful search; the imperfect marks it as an action that will (not) take place going forward.
• netek ("scall", H5424) — masculine singular noun naming the specific skin affliction under diagnosis.
• tzahov ("yellow", H6669) — masculine singular adjective modifying se'ar ("hair", H8181), the diagnostic feature that becomes irrelevant once spreading is confirmed.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative vav on ra'ah ("he will see", H7200G), continuing the sequence of priestly examinations from the preceding verses. The clause introduced by hinneh ("there!", H2009) presents the observed fact—pasah ha-netek ba-'or ("the scall has spread in the skin")—using a qal perfect (pasah) to mark this as an already-completed development at the time of the second look.

The negated clause lo yevaqqer ha-kohen la-se'ar ha-tzahov ("the priest will not seek the yellow hair") uses the piel imperfect yevaqqer (H1239), an intensive stem suggesting a thorough or deliberate search, rather than the simple qal seeing (ra'ah) used earlier. The grammar thus distinguishes two levels of priestly action: a general visual observation (ra'ah) versus a targeted investigation (yevaqqer) for a specific diagnostic sign (yellow hair). Once spreading is confirmed, the text indicates that this secondary investigation becomes unnecessary. The final clause, tame' hu ("unclean [is] he", H2931 + H1931), is a simple nominal declaration with no causal conjunction in the Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the closing declaration as "quia aperte immundus est" ("because he is openly unclean"), adding the qualifier "aperte" ("openly") and a causal "quia" ("because") not present in the Hebrew, which simply states tame' hu ("unclean [is] he") without connective or qualifier. The LXX text as given is truncated (ending "ὅτι ἅκ..."), but it likewise appears to introduce a causal ὅτι ("because") before the declaration, paralleling the Vulgate's causal structure rather than the Hebrew's direct nominal clause.