Leviticus 13:53

Summary

The verse describes a second inspection by the priest of a garment or leather article suspected of having a contaminating mark. It states the condition in which the mark has not spread further — in the garment, the warp, the woof, or any leather article.

Key words

• yir'eh ("he will see", H7200G) — qal imperfect, expressing the priest's future/ongoing act of examining; sets up the conditional clause introduced by 'im ("if", H0518A).
• fasah ("it has spread", H6581) — qal perfect, a completed action negated by lo' ("not", H3808), indicating the mark's static condition at the time of the second look.
• nega' ("plague", H5061) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the recurring technical term for the mark under examination.
• beged ("garment", H0899B) — masculine singular noun, one of the four material categories listed (garment, warp, woof, leather) where the mark may or may not have spread.
• keli 'or ("article of hide", H3627 + H5785) — construct chain "article of hide", naming leather goods as a distinct category alongside woven materials.

What the text says

The clause opens with ve'im ("and if") followed by yir'eh ha-kohen ("the priest will see"), a qal imperfect verb marking the subordinate condition governing the rest of the sentence. The apodosis-like continuation begins with ve-hinneh ("and behold"), an interjection that draws attention to the observed state, followed by the negated perfect verb lo'-fasah ("it has not spread"). The use of the perfect tense here, despite the imperfect verb governing the clause, marks the spreading (or its absence) as a completed state assessed at the moment of inspection, contrasting with the ongoing/future nuance of yir'eh.

The four locations where the mark might or might not have spread — beged ("garment"), sheti ("warp", H8359), 'erev ("woof", H6154B), and kol keli-'or ("any article of hide") — are joined by repeated 'o ("or", H0176A), creating a list of exhaustive material categories. The construct phrase kol keli-'or ("every article of hide") uses kol ("every", H3605) in construct with keli ("article of", H3627), itself in construct with 'or ("hide", H5785), forming a chain that specifies leather goods as a category distinct from woven textiles (garment, warp, woof).

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) condenses the verse sharply, stating only "if he will have seen it not to have grown" (non crevisse), omitting the specific listing of beged, sheti, 'erev, and keli-'or found in the Hebrew and LXX. The LXX renders the Hebrew list with corresponding Greek terms (ἱματίῳ, στήμονι, κρόκῃ, σκεύει δερματίνῳ) but uses μὴ διαχέηται ("not spread/diffuse") for lo'-fasah, a verb choice describing dispersion rather than the Hebrew's more general "spreading" sense of fasah.