Leviticus 13:49

49 if the disease shows greenish or reddish in the garment, whether in warp or woof or in skin or in anything made of skin, it is a leprous disease and shall be shown to the priest.

Leviticus 13:49 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 13:49

And if the plague be greenish or reddish the garment, or in
the skin
Either of these two colours were signs of leprosy in garments; but it is not agreed whether stronger or weaker colours are designed; the radicals of both these words being doubled, according to some, and particularly Aben Ezra, lessen the sense of them; and so our translators understand it; but, according to Ben Gersom, the signification is increased thereby, and the meaning is, if it be exceeding green or exceeding red; and this is evidently the sense of the Misnah F16; garments are defiled by green in greens, and by red in reds, that is, by the greenest and reddest; the green, the commentators say F17, is like that of the wings of peacocks and leaves of palm trees, and the red like crimson or scarlet; and now these garments or skins, in which the green or red spots appeared, must be white, and not coloured or dyed: the canon runs thus F18; skins and garments dyed are not defiled with plagues (of leprosy); a garment whose warp is dyed, and its woof white, or its woof dyed, and its warp white, all goes according to the sight; that is, according to what colour to the eye most prevails, whether white or dyed:

either in the warp or in the woof, or in anything of the skin;
the same held good of these as of a garment, or anything else made of them:

it [is] a plague of leprosy;
it has the signs of one, and gives great suspicion that it is one:

and shall be shewed unto the priest;
by the person in whose possession it is, that it may be examined and judged of whether it is a leprosy or no.


FOOTNOTES:

F16 Misn. Negaim, c. 11. sect. 4.
F17 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Edaiot, c. 7. sect. 8.
F18 Misn. ut supra, (c.11.) sect. 3, 4.

Leviticus 13:49 In-Context

47 Concerning clothing: when a leprous disease appears in it, in woolen or linen cloth,
48 in warp or woof of linen or wool, or in a skin or in anything made of skin,
49 if the disease shows greenish or reddish in the garment, whether in warp or woof or in skin or in anything made of skin, it is a leprous disease and shall be shown to the priest.
50 The priest shall examine the disease, and put the diseased article aside for seven days.
51 He shall examine the disease on the seventh day. If the disease has spread in the cloth, in warp or woof, or in the skin, whatever be the use of the skin, this is a spreading leprous disease; it is unclean.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. A term for several skin diseases; precise meaning uncertain
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.