Leviticus 13:7

Summary

Leviticus 13:7 addresses a case where a skin rash spreads on a person's skin after that person had already presented himself to the priest and been examined for purification. The verse states that if this spreading occurs after the first examination, the person must present himself to the priest a second time.

Key words

• pa.Soh ("certainly [to spread]", H6581) — an absolute infinitive placed before the finite verb of the same root, a construction in Biblical Hebrew that intensifies or emphasizes the certainty of the action described by the following verb.
• tif.Seh ("it will spread", H6581) — qal imperfect, denoting an action in progress or yet to occur; paired with the infinitive absolute pa.Soh, it stresses that the spreading is definite or pronounced.
• he.ra.'o.T + o ("he has presented himself", H7200G + H9043) — niphal infinitive with pronominal suffix "his"; the niphal stem here carries a reflexive/passive sense, "to show/present oneself," referring to the first visit to the priest.
• nir.'Ah ("he will present himself", H7200G) — niphal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative sequence and marking the required action following the first presentation: a second self-presentation.
• she.Nit ("a second [time]", H8145) — feminine ordinal number, marking that this presentation to the priest is explicitly the second one, distinguishing it from the first mentioned earlier in the verse.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around two occurrences of the same verbal root, ra'ah ("to see/appear," H7200G), both in the niphal stem, which gives the sense of "to present/show oneself." The first occurrence, he.ra.'o.T with the suffix -o ("his"), is an infinitive construct governed by the preposition 'a.cha.Rei ("after," H0310A), forming the temporal clause "after his presenting himself to the priest for his purification." The second occurrence, nir.'Ah, is a niphal sequential perfect, which in Biblical Hebrew narrative syntax continues the logical/temporal sequence begun by the conditional clause, functioning as the main verb: "and he will present himself a second time."

The conditional clause itself opens with ve.'im- ("and if," H9002 + H0518A) followed by the doubled construction pa.Soh tif.Seh — infinitive absolute plus imperfect of the same root H6581 ("to spread"). This doubling is a common Hebrew intensifying device: rather than simply stating "if the rash spreads," the text underscores that the spreading is pronounced or unmistakable, not marginal. The noun mis.Pa.chat ("skin rash," H4556) takes the definite article ha-, referring back to the specific rash already introduced earlier in the chapter's discussion. The construct phrase to.ho.ra.T-o ("his purification," H2893 + H9023) indicates the purpose of the first priestly examination — declaring the person clean — which the subsequent spreading now calls into question, triggering the second examination signaled by she.Nit ("a second time," H8145).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mis.Pa.chat ("skin rash," H4556) with σημασία ("sign, mark"), a more general term than the specific Hebrew skin-condition vocabulary. The Vulgate renders the phrase differently by introducing "lepra" ("leprosy") for the recurring skin condition, and adds "adducetur ad eum" ("he will be brought to him"), phrasing the second presentation as being brought by another rather than the Hebrew's niphal reflexive "he will present himself" (nir.'Ah, H7200G).