How does the priest decide when a skin condition or marked garment is clean or unclean?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The priest examines the signs and follows the chapter’s different rulings, including seven-day periods and renewed inspections where commanded. Some signs lead directly to uncleanness, while others lead to waiting or a clean verdict. Garments have their own rules for inspection, washing, removing an affected part and burning.

Chapter breakdown

The Lord gives Moses and Aaron the law concerning what this edition calls leprosy. A person with a change of skin colour, a blister or a shining mark suggesting it must be brought to Aaron the priest or one of his sons. If the priest sees the condition in the skin, with the hair turned white and the affected place lower than the surrounding skin and flesh, he judges it leprosy and the person is separated. If there is shining whiteness but the place is not lower and the hair keeps its former colour, the priest shuts the person up for seven days. On the seventh day, if it has not grown or spread, he orders another seven days. At the next inspection, if it is somewhat faint and has not spread, he declares the person clean because it is a scab. The person washes their clothes and is clean. If the condition grows again after examination and restoration to cleanness, the person must return to the priest and be declared unclean.

A person with leprosy is brought to the priest. If the priest sees white skin, changed hair and living flesh showing, he judges it longstanding leprosy grown into the skin. He declares the person unclean without shutting them up for observation because the uncleanness is evident. If, however, the condition covers all visible skin from head to foot, the priest examines it and declares the person clean because it has all turned white. When living flesh appears, the priest declares the person unclean: living flesh spotted with leprosy is unclean. If it turns white again and covers the whole person, the priest examines them and declares them clean.

If a healed ulcer leaves a white or somewhat red scar, the person is brought to the priest. If the affected place is lower than the other flesh and the hair has turned white, he declares the person unclean because leprosy has broken out in the ulcer. If the hair keeps its former colour, the scar is somewhat faint and it is not lower than the nearby flesh, he shuts the person up for seven days. If it spreads, he judges it leprosy. If it stays in place, it is only the scar of an ulcer, and the person is clean.

If burned skin has healed but has a white or red scar, the priest examines it. If he sees it turned white and lower than the other skin, he declares the person unclean because leprosy has broken out in the scar. If the hair’s colour is unchanged, the mark is not lower than the other flesh and its appearance is somewhat faint, he shuts the person up for seven days. On the seventh day, if it has spread farther, he declares the person unclean. If the whiteness stays in place and is not very clear, it is only the sore and scar of a burn, and the person is cleansed.

If the condition appears on the head or beard of a man or woman, the priest examines it. A place lower than the other flesh with yellow hair thinner than usual is declared unclean as leprosy of the head or beard. If the spot is level with nearby flesh and the hair is black, he shuts the person up for seven days. At the seventh-day inspection, if the spot has not grown, the hair keeps its colour and the spot remains level, the person is shaved everywhere except the spot and shut up for another seven days. At the next inspection, if it has stayed in place and is not lower than the other flesh, the priest cleanses the person; after washing their clothes, they are clean. If it spreads after cleansing, he need not check again for yellow hair, because the person is evidently unclean. If the spot stays in place and the hair is black, he recognizes that the person is healed and confidently declares them clean.

If whiteness appears in the skin of a man or woman, the priest examines it. A darkish white mark is a white blemish rather than leprosy, and the person is clean. A man whose hair falls from his head is bald and clean; loss of hair from the forehead also leaves him clean. But if a white or reddish colour appears on the bald head or forehead and the priest sees it, he declares leprosy in that bald area. The next instructions concern the person declared unclean with leprosy and separated by the priest’s judgment.

That person must wear clothes hanging loose, keep the head bare, cover the mouth with a cloth and cry out that they are defiled and unclean. Throughout the time they have leprosy and are unclean, they must live alone outside the camp.

A woollen or linen garment, its warp or woof—the threads running in the two directions—or a skin or anything made of skin is shown to the priest if it has a white or red spot counted as leprosy. He examines it and shuts it up for seven days. If he sees on the seventh day that the mark has grown, he judges it a fixed leprosy: the garment and everything in which it is found are unclean and must be burned.

If the mark has not grown, the priest orders the affected part washed and shuts the item up for another seven days. If its former colour has not returned, even though the mark has not spread, he judges it unclean and burns it, because the condition has taken hold of the outside of the garment or throughout it. If the affected place is somewhat dark after washing, he tears it away from the sound part. If a spreading and wandering condition then appears in places that previously had no spot, the item must be burned. If the condition ceases, the pure parts are washed with water a second time and are clean. This is the law for woollen or linen garments, their warp or woof, and things made of skins: how they are to be cleaned or declared unclean.

The story inside

The head-and-beard rule depends on a sequence that cannot be reduced to one week of waiting (13:29–37). A low spot with yellow, unusually thin hair leads to uncleanness. A level spot with black hair leads to seven days shut up. The priest then checks whether it has grown, whether the hair keeps its colour and whether the spot is still level. Only after that inspection comes shaving everywhere except the spot and a second seven-day period. A stationary spot that is not lower then leads to cleansing and washing clothes. The rule also addresses what happens afterward: renewed spread makes the person evidently unclean without another yellow-hair check, while a stationary spot with black hair is recognized as healed. The different signs and times lead to different judgments. The chapter gives these instructions without explaining a modern disease mechanism or recounting a particular patient’s history.

Lessons worth keeping

1
A waiting period is required only in the cases that call for it. The first skin rule and the head-and-beard rule can require two separate seven-day periods, while longstanding leprosy with the stated signs is declared unclean without being shut up. Keeping those branches prevents a single waiting rule from replacing the actual instructions.
2
A prior clean verdict does not erase the rules for later changes. The source requires return and an unclean judgment if the first skin condition grows again, and addresses renewed spread after cleansing of a head-or-beard spot. The whole-body whiteness rule also changes when living flesh appears and changes again when all turns white.
3
The garment rules have more than a burn-or-wash choice. They include an initial inspection, two possible waiting periods, a persistent-colour judgment, removal of the affected portion, burning if a wandering condition appears in previously sound areas and a second washing when it ceases. Each step has its own condition.

Test your recall

How do the first and second inspections change what must be done for a level head-or-beard spot with black hair, and what happens if it spreads after cleansing?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 11837–11868
Leviticus Chapter 13 The law concerning leprosy in men, and in garments. 13:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 13:2. The man in whose skin or flesh shall arise a different colour or a blister, or as it were something shining, that is the stroke of the leprosy, shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or any one of his sons. 13:3. And if he see the leprosy in his skin, and the hair turned white and the place where the leprosy appears lower than the skin and the rest of the flesh: it is the stroke of the leprosy, and upon his judgment he shall be separated. 13:4. But if there be a shining whiteness in the skin, and not lower than the other flesh, and the hair be of the former colour, the priest shall shut him up seven days. 13:5. And the seventh day he shall look on him: and if the leprosy be grown no farther, and hath not spread itself in the skin, he shall shut him up again other seven days. 13:6. And on the seventh day, he shall look on him. If the leprosy be somewhat obscure, and not spread in the skin, he shall declare him clean, because it is but a scab: and the man shall wash his clothes, and shall be clean. 13:7. But, if the leprosy grow again, after he was seen by the priest and restored to cleanness, he shall be brought to him: 13:8. And shall be condemned of uncleanness.
Lines 11870–11897
13:9. If the stroke of the leprosy be in a man, he shall be brought to the priest: 13:10. And he shall view him. And when there shall be a white colour in the skin, and it shall have changed the look of the hair, and the living flesh itself shall appear: 13:11. It shall be judged an inveterate leprosy, and grown into the skin. The priest therefore shall declare him unclean: and shall not shut him up, because he is evidently unclean. 13:12. But if the leprosy spring out running about in the skin, and cover all the skin from the head to the feet, whatsoever falleth under the sight of the eyes: 13:13. The priest shall view him, and shall judge that the leprosy which he has is very clean: because it is all turned into whiteness, and therefore the man shall be clean. 13:14. But when the live flesh shall appear in him: 13:15. Then by the judgment of the priest he shall be defiled, and shall be reckoned among the unclean. For live flesh, if it be spotted with leprosy, is unclean. 13:16. And if again it be turned into whiteness, and cover all the man: 13:17. The priest shall view him, and shall judge him to be clean.
Lines 11899–11916
13:18. When also there has been an ulcer in the flesh and the skin, and it has been healed: 13:19. And in the place of the ulcer, there appeareth a white scar, or somewhat red, the man shall be brought to the priest. 13:20. And when he shall see the place of the leprosy lower than the other flesh, and the hair turned white: he shall declare him unclean, for the plague of leprosy is broken out in the ulcer. 13:21. But if the hair be of the former colour, and the scar somewhat obscure, and be not lower than the flesh that is near it: he shall shut him up seven days. 13:22. And if it spread, he shall judge him to have the leprosy: 13:23. But if it stay in its place, it is but the scar of an ulcer: and the man shall be clean.
Lines 11918–11934
13:24. The flesh also and skin that hath been burnt, and after it is healed hath a white or a red scar: 13:25. The priest shall view it, and if he see it turned white, and the place thereof is lower than the other skin: he shall declare him unclean, because the evil of leprosy is broken out in the scar. 13:26. But if the colour of the hair be not changed, nor the blemish lower than the other flesh, and the appearance of the leprosy be somewhat obscure: he shall shut him up seven days, 13:27. And on the seventh day he shall view him. If the leprosy be grown farther in the skin, he shall declare him unclean. 13:28. But if the whiteness stay in its place, and be not very clear, it is the sore of a burning: and therefore he shall be cleansed, because it is only the scar of a burning.
Lines 11936–11963
13:29. If the leprosy break out in the head or the beard of a man or woman, the priest shall see them, 13:30. And if the place be lower than the other flesh, and the hair yellow, and thinner than usual: he shall declare them unclean, because it is the leprosy of the head and the beard; 13:31. But if he perceive the place of the spot is equal with the flesh that is near it, and the hair black: he shall shut him up seven days, 13:32. And on the seventh day he shall look upon it. If the spot be not grown, and the hair keep its colour, and the place of the blemish be even with the other flesh: 13:33. The man shall be shaven all but the place of the spot: and he shall be shut up other seven days. 13:34. If on the seventh day the evil seem to have stayed in its place, and not lower than the other flesh, he shall cleanse him: and his clothes being washed he shall be clean. 13:35. But if after his cleansing the spot spread again in the skin: 13:36. He shall seek no more whether the hair be turned yellow, because he is evidently unclean. 13:37. But if the spot be stayed, and the hair be black, let him know that the man is healed: and let him confidently pronounce him clean.
Lines 11965–11984
13:38. If a whiteness appear in the skin of a man or a woman, 13:39. The priest shall view them. If he find that a darkish whiteness shineth in the skin, let him know that it is not the leprosy, but a white blemish, and that the man is clean. 13:40. The man whose hair falleth off from his head, he is bald and clean: 13:41. And if the hair fall from his forehead, he is bald before and clean. 13:42. But if in the bald head or in the bald forehead there be risen a white or reddish colour: 13:43. And the priest perceive this, he shall condemn him undoubtedly of leprosy which is risen in the bald part. 13:44. Now whosoever shall be defiled with the leprosy, and is separated by the judgment of the priest:
Lines 11986–11991
13:45. Shall have his clothes hanging loose, his head bare, his mouth covered with a cloth: and he shall cry out that he is defiled and unclean. 13:46. All the time that he is a leper and unclean he shall dwell alone without the camp.
Lines 11993–12007
13:47. A woollen or linen garment that shall have the leprosy 13:48. In the warp, and the woof: or skin, or whatsoever is made of a skin: 13:49. If it be infected with a white or red spot, it shall be accounted the leprosy, and shall be shewn to the priest. 13:50. And he shall look upon it and shall shut it up seven days. 13:51. And on the seventh day when he looketh on it again, if he find that it is grown, it is a fixed leprosy. He shall judge the garment unclean, and every thing wherein it shall be found. 13:52. And therefore it shall be burnt with fire.
Lines 12009–12032
13:53. But if he see that it is not grown, 13:54. He shall give orders, and they shall wash that part wherein the leprosy is: and he shall shut it up other seven days. 13:55. And when he shall see that the former colour is not returned, nor yet the leprosy spread, he shall judge it unclean: and shall burn it with fire, for the leprosy has taken hold of the outside of the garment, or through the whole. 13:56. But if the place of the leprosy be somewhat dark, after the garment is washed, he shall tear it off, and divide it from that which is sound. 13:57. And if after this there appear in those places that before were without spot, a flying and wandering leprosy: it must be burnt with fire. 13:58. If it cease, he shall wash with water the parts that are pure, the second time: and they shall be clean. 13:59. This is the law touching the leprosy of any woollen or linen garment, either in the warp or woof, or any thing of skins: how it ought to be cleaned, or pronounced unclean.