Leviticus 13:48

Summary

Leviticus 13:48 continues the list of textile and leather materials that can display the skin-affliction (tzaraat) discussed in the surrounding chapter. It specifies that the affliction may appear in the warp or woof threads, in linen or wool fabric, in a hide, or in any manufactured leather article.

Key words

• shti ("warp", H8359) — masculine singular noun denoting the lengthwise threads of a loom, paired disjunctively with erev.
• 'erev ("woof", H6154B) — masculine singular noun for the crosswise weaving threads; together with shti it forms a merism covering the entire weaving process.
• pishtim ("linen", H6593) — masculine plural noun, one of the two named fabric types (with wool) susceptible to the affliction.
• melekhet ("work of", H4399) — feminine singular construct form; it grammatically binds to the following noun 'or ("hide", H5785), producing the phrase "work of hide," i.e., any object manufactured from leather.
• 'or ("hide", H5785) — appears twice: once standing alone (raw hide) and once in construct with melekhet (finished leather goods), distinguishing unworked material from crafted items.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of alternatives joined by the disjunctive conjunction 'o ("or", H0176A), repeated five times. This repetition creates a list structure rather than a single continuous clause: warp/woof, linen/wool, hide, and "any work of hide." Each item is introduced by the preposition be- ("in", H9003), indicating the location within which the affliction may be found — the phrase pattern "in X or in Y" recurs throughout.

The pairing of shti and 'erev reflects the two axes of a woven textile (the fixed warp threads and the inserted woof threads), suggesting the concern applies to the fabric's structural threads themselves, not merely the finished cloth. Similarly, pishtim and tzamer are joined by ve- ("and", H9002) rather than 'o, forming a paired category ("linens and wool") that sits within the larger disjunctive list. The final phrase, kol melekhet 'or ("any work of hide"), uses a construct chain to move from the raw material ('or alone, item 14) to any crafted product made from it (item 17–19), broadening the scope from unworked hide to finished leather goods of any kind.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders kol melekhet 'or as ἐν παντὶ ἐργασίμῳ δέρματι ("in every workable/worked hide"), using an adjective (ἐργασίμῳ) attached to δέρματι rather than the Hebrew's construct-noun phrase "work of hide." The Vulgate diverges more noticeably: it joins stamine and subtegmine with "atque" ("and") rather than treating warp and woof as a disjunctive pair, and it renders the final clause as "quidquid ex pelle confectum est" ("whatever is made from hide"), a broader relative construction than the Hebrew's construct-chain "any work of hide."