Leviticus 13:39

Nova Vulgata

intuebitur eos sacerdos. Si deprehenderit subobscurum alborem lucere in cute, sciat impetiginem ortam esse in cute; mundus est.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
intuebitur eos sacerdos. Si deprehenderit subobscurum alborem lucere in cute, sciat non esse lepram, sed maculam coloris candidi, et hominem mundum.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
intuebitur eos sacerdos. Si deprehenderit subobscurum alborem lucere in cute, sciat non esse lepram, sed maculam coloris candidi, et hominem mundum.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

if the bright: Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 7:22-25, James 3:2

a freckled spot: The word bohak, from the Syriac behak, to be white, or shining, here rendered "a freckled spot," is used by the Arabs to denote a kind of leprosy, of which Niebuhr says, "Bohak is neither contagious nor dangerous. A black boy at Mocha, who was affected with this eruption, had here and there upon his body white spots. We were told that the use of sulphur had relieved this boy for a time, but had not entirely removed the disease." He adds subsequently from Forskal's papers, "The Arabs call a sort of leprosy, in which some little spots shew themselves here and there on the body, behaq; and it is without doubt the same as is named bohak, (Leviticus 13:1-59). They believe it to be so far from contagious, that one may sleep with a person affected without danger.

"On the 15th day of May, 1765, I myself first saw the Bohak leprosy in a Jew at Mocha. The spots in this disease are of an unequal size. They do not shine; are not perceptibly higher than the skin; and do not change the colour of the hair. Their colour is an obscure white, inclining to red. The rest of the skin of the patient was darker than that of the people of the country in general; but the spots were not so white as the skin of an European, when not sun-burnt. The spots in this leprosy do not appear on the hands, or near the navel, but on the neck and face, yet not on that part where the hair grows thick. They gradually spread, and continue sometimes only about two months, but in some cases one or two years, and then disappear by degrees, of themselves. This disorder is neither contagious nor hereditary, nor does it occasion any inconvenience." Hence a person infected with the bohak is declared clean."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then the priest shall look,.... Upon the man or woman that has these spots, and upon the spots themselves, and examine them of what kind they are:

and, behold, [if] the bright spots in the skin of their flesh [be] darkish white; their whiteness is not strong, as Jarchi observes; but dusky and obscure, or "contracted" w; small white spots, not large and spreading:

it [is] a freckled spot [that] grows in the skin; a kind of morphew, which the above writer describes as a sort of whiteness which appears in the flesh of a ruddy man:

he [is] clean; from leprosy; this is observed, lest a person that is freckled and has a morphew should be mistaken for a leprous person; as every man that has some spots, failings, and infirmities, is not to be reckoned a wicked man.

w כהות "costractae", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Freckled spot - If Leviticus 13:12 refers to the Lepra commonis, the Hebrew בהק bôhaq here may denote some kind of eczema, a skin disease of a somewhat similar external character.

Leviticus 13:38, Leviticus 13:39 would seem more in their natural place between Leviticus 13:17-18.