Leviticus 13:10

And the priest shall see [him],.... Look at him, and closely and narrowly inspect and examine his case: and, behold, [if] the rising [be] white in the skin; this is another appearance of the leprosy;

And the priest shall see him: and, behold, if the rising be white in the skin, and it have turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh in the rising; If the rising be white.

If the rising be white, to wit, with a preternatural and extraordinary whiteness, as . And there be; or rather, or, the copulative put for the disjunctive, as hath been noted before; for either of these were signs of a leprosy, and one of these may seem inconsistent with the other; the former sign of white hair supposing the skin in which the hair was to remain, and the latter of live flesh supposing the skin to be consumed by the leprosy. Quick raw flesh showed that this was not a superficial leprosy, but one of a deeper and more malignant nature, that had eaten into the very flesh, for which cause it is in the next verse called an old, or inveterate, or grown leprosy.

Leviticus 13:10 And the priest shall see [him]: and, behold, [if] the rising [be] white in the skin, and it have turned the hair white, and [there be] quick raw flesh in the rising;Ver. 10. And there be quick raw flesh.] It is one of the most remarkable things in all this law, saith a learned divine, that quick or sound flesh in the sore should be judged leprosy, and the man unclean: whereas if the leprosy covered all his flesh, he was pronounced clean. Hereby may be meant, (1.) Such as justify themselves and their wickedness, as Jonah did his anger; whereas he who judged himself, is like him who had the leprosy all over, and might be declared clean: or, (2.) Such who sin against the light of knowledge, and the quickening, yea, rawness of a galled conscience.

(10) If the rising be white.—If the distemper actually returns, one of two symptoms indicates it. A white rising will be noticed in the skin, which changes the black hair into white. The white hair only then indicates the disorder when it co-exists with the white rising or swelling which produced it. If the original white swelling, which discoloured the hair, disappears, and a fresh white swelling forms itself around the existing white hair, it is no indication of uncleanness. And there be quick raw flesh in the rising.—Rather, or if there be, or and likewise if there be, &c. This clause gives the second of the two symptoms, either of which indicates the return of the disorder. According to the administrators of the law during the second Temple, the phrase here translated “quick raw flesh” in the Authorised Version, which literally means “the quickening of live flesh,” denotes “sound flesh,” or a spot in the flesh assuming the appearance of life after it had been paled by the whiteness which overspread the whole surface. The size of this spot of live flesh, which indicated the disease and made the patient unclean, had to be at least that of a lentil. This rendering is given by the LXX,, the Chaldee, &c. An insulated spot of sound flesh in the midst of a tubercle was considered a sign of the fretting and consuming progress which the disease made in the surrounding flesh.

9–17. The first part of this section is obscure; most modern commentators explain Leviticus 13:9-11 as referring to another form of leprosy in which the rising described in Leviticus 13:10 appears without any of the premonitory symptoms of Lev 13:2; if in addition to the white hair (already mentioned in Leviticus 13:3) there is ‘quick raw flesh’ (Leviticus 13:10) in the rising, this is a sure sign of leprosy, and the man must be declared unclean at once without waiting for any further examination. By ‘quick raw flesh’ (Heb. ‘the rawness of raw flesh,’ or lit. ‘the quickness of quick flesh’) is understood an appearance like that of raw meat. The Heb. words for ‘raw flesh’ [bâsâr ḥ ?ay] are used of raw meat in 1 Samuel 2:15; Prof. Macalister describes it as ‘red granulation tissue’ (HDB. iii. 96a). The words ‘old leprosy’ must then mean a leprosy of long standing which has not manifested itself in the preliminary stages, but, when first noticed, shews this definite indication of the disease. It is possible that these verses may include the case when the first symptoms described in Leviticus 13:2 have been either unobserved or concealed. Another explanation of Lev 13:9-11 is that they describe a fresh outbreak in one who has been pronounced clean, or who has been cured of a previous attack. The traditional interpretation of ‘quick raw flesh’ (the quickening of living flesh, A. V. mg.) is ‘sound flesh.’ The appearance of this sound flesh in a rising was, in the opinion of the rabbis, evidence that an old leprosy had developed fresh activity. The words of Lev 13:7, ‘after that he hath shewn himself to the priest for his cleansing,’ are by some considered as referring to the third of the inspections prescribed in Leviticus 13:2-6. It has been observed that the suspected person at the first and second inspection must either be pronounced unclean, or shut up for further enquiry, and he cannot be pronounced clean till the third examination. Then Leviticus 13:7-8 would refer to the reappearance of leprous symptoms after a man had been pronounced clean by the priest, and Leviticus 13:9-11 would supply further rules for such cases.

If the rising be white - Or, If there be a white rising. The term very probably denotes the white Bulla or patch of Anaesthetic elephantiasis when it has re-appeared.

10-12. The rising — This was a decisive indication when it was white and accompanied by white hair and raw flesh in the swelling.