Leviticus 13:4

Lev 13:4 If the bright spot [be] white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight [be] not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up [him that hath] the plague seven days:

Ver. 4. Shall shut up him.] For further trial of truth, that daughter of time. We may not precipitate a censure, but be slow to speak, slow to wrath. The leper must be shut up from week to week, till the thing were certain: so till men’s perverseness be made "manifest," {2Ti 3:9} we must suspend our censures. Many are like candles whose tallow is mixed with brine; no sooner lighted, but they spit up and down the room.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lev 13:4. Seven days — For greater assurance; to teach ministers not to be hasty in their judgments, but diligently to search and examine all things beforehand. The plague is here put in the original for the man that hath the plague.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13:4-5 The purpose of a quarantine was primarily diagnostic. It gave the priest an opportunity to examine the patient’s symptoms over a period of time.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(4) If the bright spot be white.—But if upon inspection there merely appeared a white spot in the skin, and the above named two symptoms were absent, the case was not to be decided.

Then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague.—The individual thus suspected was to be separated from the rest of the community for seven days, during which time it would be seen whether it actually developed itself into this disorder. According to the canons which obtained during the second Temple, if a bridegroom was seized with this distemper he could not be shut up during the nuptial week. It will be seen that the words “him that hath” are in italics, thus indicating that they are not in the text; but “plague” here, as we have seen in Lev_13:3, denotes plagued person.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. If any of the symptoms are not found, the man is to be shut up seven days and again examined.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh,.... The Targum of Jonathan is, white as chalk in the skin of his flesh; but other Jewish writers make the whiteness of the bright spot to be the greatest of all, like that of snow; See Gill on Lev 13:2,

and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; though it be a bright spot, and be very white, yet these two marks not appearing, it cannot be judged a leprosy, at most it is only suspicious: wherefore

then the priest, shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days; in whom the bright spot is, and of whom there is a suspicion of the plague of leprosy, but it is not certain; and therefore, in order to take time, and get further knowledge, the person was to be shut up from all company and conversation for the space of seven days; by which time it might be supposed, as Ben Gersom observes, that the case and state of the leprosy (if it was one) would be altered; and Aben Ezra remarks, that most diseases change or alter on the seventh day.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For greater assurance; to teach ministers not to be rash nor hasty in their judgments and censures, but diligently to search and examine all things beforehand.

The plague is here put for the man that hath the plague, as pride is put for a proud man, Jer 50:31, and dreams for the dreamers, Jer 27:9.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. Shut up seven days — The community, and not the suspected leper, was to have the benefit of the doubt. Every safeguard against the ceremonial impurity was to be taken. Precisely the same measures were adopted in the island of Barbadoes when the leprosy broke out there. The patients were at first shut up seven days in order to determine between the leprosy and the crowcrow, an African itch. At Guadaloupe the citizens petitioned the authorities for a universal inspection of suspected persons, and their confinement in quarantine, and, in the case of the lepers, their removal to permanent pest-houses. It was found that the board of health had in this chapter a code of laws framed to their hand and ready for use with only the change of the word “priest” to physician.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 4-8. In case the symptoms are not decisive, then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days. The words thus translated would perhaps be better rendered, then the priest shall bind up the part affected for seven days. The priest is to delay his judgment for a week, and, if necessary, for a second week, during which period the patient is, according to the rendering, either to be confined to his house or, more probably, to have the spot bandaged. Whether the disease be or be not leprosy will probably have declared itself by the end of that time; and if the plague be somewhat dark on the fourteenth day, that is, if it has begun to lose its colour and to fade away, and has not spread in the skin, the priest is to decide that it is not real leprosy, and pronounce the man clean. He is still, however, to be kept under supervision, and if the spot is found to spread, he is to be pronounced unclean, as it is proved to be a leprosy.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Seven days - For greater assurance; to teach ministers not to be hasty in their judgments, but diligently to search and examine all things before-hand. The plague is here put for the man that hath the plague.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

ועמק אין מראה AND ITS APPEARANCE BE NOT DEEPER [THAN THE SKIN] — I do not know the meaning of this.

והסגיר HE SHALL SHUT [HIM UP] — He shall shut him up in one house and shall not see him again until the end of the week. Then the symptom that show themselves shall decide regarding him whether he is unclean or not.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.