Leviticus 13:4

Summary

The verse describes a conditional case in the priestly diagnostic procedure: if a bright spot on the skin is white, does not appear deeper than the surrounding skin, and the hair within it has not turned white, the priest is to isolate the affected person for seven days rather than immediately pronounce a verdict.

Key words

• baheret ("bright spot", H0934) — feminine singular noun naming the skin phenomenon under examination; it is the grammatical subject of the conditional clause.
• lavanah ("white", H3836) — feminine singular adjective agreeing with baheret; describes the spot's color as the first diagnostic criterion.
• 'amoq ("deep", H6013) — masculine singular adjective; here negated by the following 'ein construction to state that the spot's appearance is not deeper than the skin, the second criterion.
• hafakh ("it has turned", H2015) — qal perfect third-person verb, negated by lo' ("not", H3808); indicates the hair has not undergone a change of color, the third criterion.
• hisgir ("he will shut up", H5462) — hiphil sequential perfect; a causative verb marking the priest's action of confining/isolating the person, syntactically continuing the chain begun by the conditional clause.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) plus the conditional particle 'im ("if", H0518A), introducing a protasis built from three coordinated conditions joined by ve. Each condition uses a nominal or adjectival predicate rather than a finite verb for the first two clauses: baheret levanah hi' ("it is a white bright spot") and 'amoq 'ein mar'eha min-ha'or ("its appearance is not deep from the skin"), using the construct 'ein ("not of", H0369) governing mar'eh ("appearance", H4758) to negate depth. The third condition, se'arah lo'-hafakh lavan ("its hair has not turned white"), uses a finite qal perfect verb negated by lo', marking a completed (non-)action rather than a state.

The apodosis begins with ve-hisgir ("and he will shut up"), a hiphil sequential perfect that continues the narrative chain from the conditional clauses, indicating the priest's resulting action. The direct object marker 'et (H0853) precedes ha-nega' ("the plagued [person/spot]", H5061), marked definite by the article ha (H9009). The phrase shiv'at yamim ("seven of days", H7651 + H3117G) uses a construct chain, literally "seven of days," to specify the duration of isolation.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders nega' with ἁφὴν ("the touch/mark"), a more abstract term than the Hebrew nega' ("plagued [person/spot]", H5061), and adds αὐτὴ δέ ἐστιν ἀμαυρά ("but it is faint/dim"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew text as given. The Vulgate's recludet eum ("he will shut him up") specifies a masculine object eum, aligning with "the afflicted person," while the Hebrew ha-nega' is grammatically masculine but conceptually can denote either the mark or the person bearing it.