Leviticus 13:43

Summary

The priest examines the person again, checking whether a swelling on the bald patch or bald forehead has the reddish-white appearance characteristic of the skin disease already described as affecting the skin of the flesh. The verse describes a diagnostic re-examination focused specifically on bald areas of the head.

Key words

• ra.'Ah ("he will see", H7200G) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain of priestly examination actions already established earlier in the chapter.
• se.'et ("[the] swelling of", H7613) — feminine singular construct noun, grammatically linking to ha.Ne.ga' ("the plague") to form "the swelling of the plague."
• ka.rach.T ("bald spot", H7146) — construct noun with pronominal suffix o ("his"), specifying the exact location on the person's head.
• ga.bach.T ("bald forehead", H1372) — parallel construct noun with suffix o, offered as an alternative location joined by 'o ("or", H0176A).
• tza.Ra.'at ("a serious skin disease of", H6883) — construct noun chained to or ("skin of") and ba.Sar ("flesh"), forming the reference standard "appearance of tzara'at of skin of flesh."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative vav on ra.'Ah ("he will see"), continuing a sequence of priestly actions from the surrounding verses. The object marker 'ot with suffix o ("him/it") specifies that the priest examines the same person previously introduced. The interjection hi.Neh ("there!") introduces the observed condition directly, a common construction in these diagnostic Levitical texts that marks the priest's visual assessment.

The core clause centers on a chain of construct relationships: se.'et ("swelling of") governs ha.Ne.ga' ("the plague"), which is then described by two feminine adjectives, le.va.Nah ("white") and 'a.dam.De.met ("reddish"), applied together to the same swelling. Location is given through two parallel prepositional phrases with be ("on"): be.qa.rach.T-o ("on his bald spot") and be.ga.bach.T-o ("on his bald forehead"), joined by 'o ("or"), indicating these are treated as alternative but equivalent sites on the head.

The final comparison uses a construct chain: ke.mar.'Eh ("like the appearance of") governs tza.Ra.'at ("skin disease of"), which governs or ("skin of"), which governs ba.Sar ("flesh"). This creates a four-term chain establishing the visual standard against which the bald-spot condition is measured — the same skin disease appearance described for other body skin in the surrounding legal material.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the swelling as ὄψις ("appearance/sight") of the ἁφῆς ("infection/touch") rather than following the Hebrew's se.'et ("swelling of") as a bodily elevation term; this shifts the emphasis from a physical swelling to visual appearance. The Vulgate condenses the verse considerably, stating the priest "will condemn him without doubt of leprosy" (condemnabit eum haud dubiæ lepræ), omitting the parallel reddish-white descriptive language and the bald forehead/bald spot distinction present in the Hebrew's two separate construct nouns ka.rach.T and ga.bach.T.