Leviticus 13:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The priest shall examine him; and, behold, if the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הַמִּסְפַּ֖חַת

miçpachath

H4556

“the · scab”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 3× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Leviticus 13:6

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5596

TWOT: 1534b

eruption, scab

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

10: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is הַמִּסְפַּ֖חַת scab H4556 — appearing just 3 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הַמִּסְפַּ֖חַת scab H4556 occurs in 3 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
5 nouns
1 pronoun
1 particle

Verb forms

וְרָאָה֙ Qal · Sequential Perfect
פָּשְׂתָ֥ה Qal · Perfect
וְטִמְּא֥וֹ Piel · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הַכֹּהֵ֔ן priest H3548 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 25 words from the Hebrew and 28 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Leviticus 13:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Leviticus 13:3 and the priest shall examine the plague in the skin of the body: and if the hair in the plague has turned white, and the appearance of the plague is deeper than the body's skin, it is the plague of leprosy; and the priest shall examine him, and pronounce him unclean.
Matthew 15:7–8 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
Acts 8:21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn't right before God.
Philippians 3:18–19 For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,
2 Peter 2:19 promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for by whom a man is overcome, by the same is he also brought into bondage.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Leviticus 13:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְרָאָה֙ הַכֹּהֵ֔ן וְהִנֵּ֛ה פָּשְׂתָ֥ה הַמִּסְפַּ֖חַת בָּע֑וֹר וְטִמְּא֥וֹ הַכֹּהֵ֖ן צָרַ֥עַת הִֽוא

The priest shall examine him; and, behold, if the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Leviticus 13:8 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁράω αὐτός ὁ ἱερεύς καί ἰδού μεταπίπτω ὁ σημασία ἐν ὁ δέρμα καί μιαίνω αὐτός ὁ ἱερεύς λέπρα εἰμί

and the priest shall look upon him; and, behold, if the mark have spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a leprosy.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְיֶחֱזֵי כַהֲנָא וְהָא אוֹסֵפַת עֲדִיתָא בְּמַשְׁכָּא וִיסָאֵבִנֵהּ כַּהֲנָא סגִירוּתָא הִיא

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְיֶחֱמֵי כַּהֲנָא וְלָא הֲלִיכַת פִּיסְיוֹנָא דְקִילוּפֵי מִטַפְלָא בְּמַשְׁכָא וְיַסְאֲבִינֵיהּ כַהֲנָא מְטוֹל דִסְגִירוּתָא הוּא

And the priest shall look; and, behold, if the widening of the inveterate sore hath gone on in the skin, the priest shall make him unclean; for it is the leprosy.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Leviticus 13:8 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Lev 13:8 And [if] the priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it [is] a leprosy.

Ver. 8. The scab spreadeth.] This signifieth that there was yet more corruption within the body, and the inward parts were not sound. Think the same of the reign of sin in our mortal bodies. {Rom 6:12; Rom 6:14; Rom 6:20}

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.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

13:8 If the rash had spread, then the priest declared the person unclean and the isolation became long-term.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

As touching his bodily disease: for his disease was not imputed to him for sin before God, though it were the punishment of sin.

Or, be spread abroad.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

John Gill's Exposition

And if the priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin,.... Is not at a stay, as when he looked at it a second and third time:

then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; a leprous person; to be absolutely so, as Jarchi expresses it; and so obliged to the birds (to bring birds for his cleansing), and to shaving, and to the offering spoken of in this section, as the same writer observes:

it is a leprosy: it is a clear and plain case that it was one, and no doubt is to be made of it, it is a spreading leprosy: as sin is; it spreads itself over all the powers and faculties of the soul, and over all the members of the body; and it spreads more and more in every stage of life, unless and until grace puts a stop to it.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

CHAPTER XIII.

Uncleanness, or permanent leprosy.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

וטמאו הכהן AND THE PRIEST SHALL PRONOUNCE HIM UNCLEAN — and as soon as he has pronounced him unclean he is a decided leper and he is obliged when he recovers from his leprosy to bring two birds (as a means of his purification) and to shave his flesh and to bring the offering which is mentioned in the section beginning זאת תהיה — Leviticus ch. 14 (cf. Megillah 8b).

צרעת הוא IT IS A LEPROSY — this מספחת is a leprosy (while the מספחת mentioned in v. 6 is a clean scab)

The word צרעת is feminine; נגע is masculine.

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.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Leviticus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 10 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is miçpachath (“scab”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word miçpachath carries the sense “scab.” How does it shape the verse?
Leviticus 13:6 shares the word «scab» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“priest” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וְרָאָה֙» is Qal Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
“priest” occurs 2× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.