Leviticus 13:51

Summary

The verse describes the seventh-day reexamination of a suspected mark (nega', H5061) on fabric or leather. If the mark has spread since the first inspection, it is declared a malignant tzara'at (H6883), rendering the item unclean regardless of its use.

Key words

• ra'Ah ("he will see", H7200G) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain from the previous verse's instructions; here referring to the act of reexamination.
• fasah ("it has spread", H6581) — qal perfect, marking completed action: the spreading has already occurred by the time of the seventh-day check, forming the condition (ki, "if", H3588A) that triggers the verdict.
• nega' ("plague", H5061) — masculine singular noun, repeated three times in the verse, denoting the mark or affliction under examination on the object.
• ye'aSeh ("it will be made", H6213A) — niphal (passive) imperfect, describing hide "being made" into an item; the passive voice shifts focus from the maker to the material's transformed state.
• tzara'at mam'Eret ("malignant tzara'at", H6883 + H3992) — the noun tzara'at combined with a hiphil participle (H3992) functioning adjectivally as "the one causing harm/spreading," together naming the diagnosed condition.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with a narrative vav (H9001) attached to ra'Ah (H7200G), continuing a sequence of prior verses about inspecting a mark on cloth or leather. The direct object marker 'et (H0853) introduces ha-nega' ("the plague", H5061) as the grammatical object of sight, followed by a temporal phrase "on the seventh day" (ba-yom ha-shevi'i). The conditional particle ki (H3588A) then introduces the clause governing the outcome: fasah (H6581), a completed-action perfect, states that the mark "has spread" by the time of this second inspection.

The list of materials — beged ("clothing", H0899B), sheti ("warp", H8359), 'erev ("woof", H6154B), 'or ("hide", H5785) — is joined by repeated 'o ("or", H0176A), enumerating each type of item that may bear the mark. The relative clause with the niphal imperfect ye'aseh (H6213A) broadens the scope: whatever is "made" from hide, for any melakhah ("product/work", H4399), falls under the same rule, showing the law covers the material regardless of its final crafted form.

The verse closes with two nominal (verbless) clauses: tzara'at mam'eret ha-nega' ("the plague [is] malignant tzara'at") and tamé hu' ("it [is] unclean"), each stating a fact directly through noun/adjective juxtaposition with the pronoun hu' ("it", H1931) rather than a verb "to be" — a common feature of Hebrew declarative clauses.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds ὁ ἱερεὺς ("the priest") as the explicit subject of "he will see," where the Hebrew leaves the subject implicit (continuing from earlier verses). The LXX also renders tzara'at mam'eret as λέπρα ἔμμονός ("persistent leprosy"), differing from the sense of "malignant/harmful" carried by the hiphil participle mam'Eret (H3992) in the Hebrew. The Vulgate similarly supplies an implied examiner ("aspiciens") and translates the condition as "lepra perseverans" ("persisting leprosy"), aligning with the LXX's "persistent" nuance rather than the Hebrew's "malignant" sense.