Leviticus 13:41
וְאִם מִפְּאַת פָּנָיו יִמָּרֵט רֹאשׁוֹ גִּבֵּחַ הוּא טָהוֹר הֽוּא׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאִם֙ מִפְּאַ֣ת פָּנָ֔יו יִמָּרֵ֖ט רֹאשׁ֑וֹ גִּבֵּ֥חַ ה֖וּא טָה֥וֹר הֽוּא׃
ἐὰν δὲ κατὰ πρόσωπον μαδήσῃ ἡ κεφαλὴ αὐτοῦ, ἀναφάλαντός ἐστιν, καθαρός ἐστιν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
et si a fronte ceciderint pili, recalvaster et mundus est.
Si se le cae el pelo de la parte de enfrente y se queda medio calvo, está puro.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y si á la parte de su rostro se le pelare la cabeza, es calvo por delante, pero limpio.
Or if his hairline recedes and he is bald on his forehead, he is still clean.
✦ What the text says
Leviticus 13:41
Summary
The verse addresses a case where hair falls out from the front part of a person's face/forehead, causing baldness there. The text declares this condition ritually pure, using a doubled pronoun-adjective structure for emphasis.
Key words
- pe'At ("side of", H6285) — feminine singular construct noun, meaning "edge" or "side of," here specifying the frontal region.
- paNav ("his face", H6440H) — masculine plural construct noun with pronominal suffix; "face" appears in plural form in Hebrew even when referring to a single face.
- yimmaRet ("it will become bare", H4803) — niphal imperfect verb, indicating a passive or reflexive action ("becomes bare" rather than "someone removes it"), with future/ongoing aspect.
- gibBeach ("bald", H1371) — masculine singular adjective describing the specific condition of frontal baldness.
- taHor ("pure", H2889) — masculine singular adjective, the ritual-purity verdict pronounced on this condition.
What the text says
The verse opens with the conditional construction ve'Im ("and if", H9002 + H0518A), introducing a specific sub-case within the broader chapter's discussion of skin conditions. The phrase mippe'At paNav ("from the side of his face") uses the construct chain pe'At + paNav to pinpoint the frontal area precisely — literally "from the edge of his faces," with paNim ("face") in its characteristic plural form.
The verb yimmaRet is niphal, a verbal stem that expresses the action happening to the subject without naming an agent — the hair "becomes bare" rather than being described as someone actively removing it. This grammatical choice keeps focus on the resulting physical state rather than any cause.
The verse concludes with two short nominal clauses, each following the same pattern: adjective + personal pronoun hu' ("he", H1931). First gibBeach hu' ("bald he [is]"), then taHor hu' ("pure he [is]"). This repetition of hu' after each adjective creates a parallel, declarative rhythm characteristic of legal/ritual pronouncements in this text, restating the subject before each verdict.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders pe'At paNav as κατὰ πρόσωπον ("according to the face"), collapsing the Hebrew's construct-chain specificity into a simpler prepositional phrase. The Vulgate's a fronte ("from the forehead") similarly simplifies the Hebrew phrase into a single anatomical term. The Hebrew's doubled hu'... hu' structure (marking two separate declarative clauses) is not preserved distinctly in the LXX or Vulgate, which each state the baldness and purity as a single continuous clause rather than two parallel pronouncements.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.