Leviticus 13

This chapter belongs to the section of Leviticus devoted to the laws of purity. Following chapter 11 on clean and unclean animals and chapter 12 on purification after childbirth, it addresses skin diseases. The rites of cleansing follow in chapter 14.

Outline

• Verses 1–8: The priest examines a person who has a rising, a scab, or a bright spot on the skin. If the hair in the spot has turned white and the spot appears deeper than the skin, the person is unclean. If the case is unclear, the person is shut up (isolated) for seven days at a time and then examined again.
• Verses 9–17: Rulings on an old leprosy and on raw (quick) flesh. If the disease covers the whole body and has turned it all white, the person is clean; if raw flesh appears, the person is unclean.
• Verses 18–23: Rulings on a spot that appears where a boil has healed.
• Verses 24–28: Rulings on a spot that appears on a burn.
• Verses 29–37: Rulings on a scall on the head or beard, based on the color of the hair and on whether the condition has spread.
• Verses 38–39: Dull white spots are a freckled spot (tetter), and the person is clean.
• Verses 40–44: A bald person is clean, but if a white reddish sore appears on the bald area, the person is unclean.
• Verses 45–46: The unclean person must tear his clothes, cover his upper lip, and cry "Unclean," and must live alone outside the camp.
• Verses 47–59: If a greenish or reddish spot appears on a woolen garment, a linen garment, or leather, the item is shut up for seven days and examined. If the spot spreads, the item is burned; if it fades, the affected part is torn out or the item is washed.

Key Verses

• Leviticus 13:3: "The priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean." The ruling belongs to the priest.
• Leviticus 13:45–46: "And shall cry, Unclean, unclean. … without the camp shall his habitation be." This regulation requires an unclean person to live apart from the community.

People and Places

• The LORD gives the regulations to Moses and Aaron.
• The camp: the tent encampment where the people of Israel lived in the wilderness.

Points for Reflection

• The Hebrew term tsara'at is rendered mundungbyeong ("leprosy") in the Korean Revised Version, nabyeong ("leprosy") in the New Korean Revised Version, and "malignant skin disease" in the New Korean Standard Version. Because the text says the condition can also appear on garments and leather, many scholars hold that the term does not correspond to modern Hansen's disease.
• The categories of clean and unclean in this chapter are often understood as determining whether a person may take part in the worshiping community. The text does not say that the disease is the result of sin; reading it as a symbol of sin is a later interpretation.
• In the New Testament, Jesus touched and healed a leper and told him to show himself to the priest (Mark 1:40–44). The account of the ten lepers likewise presupposes these regulations. In the Old Testament, the stories of Naaman and Uzziah are related.

In the Korean Church

• Sermons on this chapter frequently mention the ministry of Son Yang-won, who cared for patients with Hansen's disease at Aeyangwon in Yeosu.