Leviticus 13:47

Nova Vulgata

Si in veste lanea sive linea lepra fuerit,

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Vestis lanea sive linea, qu� lepram habuerit,

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Vestis lanea sive linea, qu� lepram habuerit,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

The garment: This leprosy in garments appears so strange to us, that it has induced some, with Bp. Patrick, to consider it as an extraordinary punishment inflicted by God upon the Israelites, as a sign of his high displeasure; while others consider the leprosy in clothes - and also houses as having no relation to the leprosy in man. When Michaelis was considering the subject, he was told by a dealer in wool, that the wool of sheep which die of a disease, if it has not been shorn from the animal while living, is unfit to manufacture cloth, and liable to something like what Moses here describes, and which he imagines to be the plague of leprosy in garments. The whole account, however, as Dr. A. Clarke observes, seems to intimate that the garment was fretted by the contagion of the real leprosy; which it is probable was occasioned by a species of animacula, or vermin, burrowing in the skin, which we know to be the cause of the itch; these, by breeding in the garments, must necessarily multiply their kind, and fret the garments, i.e., corrode a portion of the finer parts, after the manner of moths, for their nourishment. The infection of garments has frequently been known to cause the worst species of scarlet fever, and even the plague; and those infected with psora, or itch animal, have communicated the disease even in six or seven years after the infection. Isaiah 3:16-24, Isaiah 59:6, Isaiah 64:6, Ezekiel 16:16, Romans 13:12, Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:3, Jude 1:23

Reciprocal: Leviticus 14:55 - the leprosy

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The garments also, that the plague of leprosy is in,.... Whether this sort of leprosy proceeded from natural causes, or was extraordinary and miraculous, and came immediately from the hand of God, and was peculiar to the Jews, and unknown to other nations, is a matter of question; the latter is generally asserted by the Hebrew writers, as Maimonides e, Abraham Seba f, and others g; but others are of opinion, and Abarbinel among the Jews, that it might be by the contact or touch of a leprous person. Indeed it must be owned, as a learned man h observes, that the shirts and clothes of a leper must be equally infectious, and more so than any other communication with him; and the purulent matter which adheres thereunto must needs infect; such who put on their clothes; for it may be observed, that it will get between the threads of garments, and stick like glue, and fill them up, and by the acrimony of it corrode the texture itself; so that experience shows that it is very difficult to wash such a garment without a rupture, and the stains are not easily got out: and it must be allowed that garments may be scented by diseases, and become infectious, and carry a disease from place to place, as the plague oftentimes is carried in wool, cotton, silk, or any bale goods; but whether all this amounts to the case before us is still a question. Some indeed have endeavoured to account for it by observing, that wool ill scoured, stuffs kept too long, and some particular tapestries, are subject to worms and moths which eat them, and from hence think it credible, that the leprosy in clothes, and in skins here mentioned, was caused by this sort of vermin; to which, stuffs and works, wrought in wool in hot countries, and in times when arts and manufactures were not carried to the height of perfection as now, might probably be more exposed i; but this seems not to agree with this leprosy of Moses, which lay not in the garment being eaten, but in the colour and spread of it:

[whether it be] a woollen garment or a linen garment: and, according to the Misnic doctors k, only wool and linen were defiled by leprosy; Aben Ezra indeed says, that the reason why no mention is made of silk and cotton is because the Scripture speaks of what was found (then in use), as in Exodus 23:5; wherefore, according to him, woollen and linen are put for all other garments; though, he adds, or it may be the leprosy does not happen to anything but wool and linen; however, it is allowed, as Ben Gersom observes, that when the greatest part of the cloth is made of wool or linen, it was defiled by it: the Jewish canon is, if the greatest part is of camels hair, it is not defiled; but if the greatest part is of sheep, it is; and if half to half (or equal) it is defiled; and so flax, and hemp mixed together l; the same rule is to be observed concerning them.

e Hilchot Tumaat Tzarat, c. 16. sect. 10. f Tzeror Hammor, fol. 99. 3. g Ramban, Bechai, Isaac Arama, & alii, apud Muisium in loc. h Scheuchzer. Physica Sacra, vol. 2. p. 326. i Calmet's Dictionary, in the word "Leper". k Misn. Celaim, c. 9. sect, 1. l Ib. Negaim, c. 11. sect. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The garment - Rather, The clothing, referring to the ordinary dress of the Israelites in the wilderness; namely,, a linen tunic with a fringe Numbers 15:38 and a woolen cloak or blanket thrown on in colder weather.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 47. The garment also — The whole account here seems to intimate that the garment was fretted by this contagion; and hence it is likely that it was occasioned by a species of small animals, which we know to be the cause of the itch; these, by breeding in the garments, must necessarily multiply their kind, and fret the garments, i. e., corrode a, portion of the finer parts, after the manner of moths, for their nourishment. See Leviticus 13:52.