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Levítico 13

BLIVRE · Chapter 13/27

1E falou o SENHOR a Moisés e a Arão, dizendo:

2Quando o homem tiver na pele de sua carne inchaço, ou pústula, ou mancha branca, e houver na pele de sua carne como chaga de lepra, será trazido a Arão o sacerdote, ou a um dos sacerdotes seus filhos:

3E o sacerdote olhará a chaga na pele da carne: se o pelo na chaga se tornou branco, e parecer a chaga mais profunda que a pele da carne, chaga de lepra é; e o sacerdote lhe reconhecerá, e lhe dará por impuro.

4E se na pele de sua carne houver mancha branca, mas não parecer mais profunda que a pele, nem seu pelo se houver tornado branco, então o sacerdote encerrará ao que tem chagas por sete dias;

5E ao sétimo dia o sacerdote o olhará; e se a chaga a seu parecer se houver parado, não havendo-se estendido na pele, então o sacerdote lhe voltará a encerrar por outros sete dias.

6E ao sétimo dia o sacerdote lhe reconhecerá de novo; e se parece haver-se escurecido a chaga, e que não estendeu na pele, então o sacerdote o dará por limpo: era pústula; e lavará suas roupas, e será limpo.

7Mas se houver ido crescendo a pústula na pele, depois que foi mostrado ao sacerdote para ser limpo, será visto outra vez pelo sacerdote:

8E se reconhecendo-o o sacerdote, vê que a pústula cresceu na pele, o sacerdote o dará por impuro: é lepra.

9Quando houver chaga de lepra no homem, será trazido ao sacerdote;

10E o sacerdote olhará, e se parecer inchaço branco na pele, o qual tenha mudado a cor do pelo, e se descobre também a carne viva,

11Lepra é envelhecida na pele de sua carne; e lhe dará por impuro o sacerdote, e não lhe encerrará, porque é impuro.

12Mas se brotar a lepra estendendo pela pele, e ela cobrir toda a pele do que tem chagas desde sua cabeça até seus pés, a toda vista de olhos do sacerdote;

13Então o sacerdote lhe reconhecerá; e se a lepra houver coberto toda sua carne, dará por limpo ao que tem chagas: tornou-se toda ela branca; e ele é limpo.

14Mas o dia que parecer nele a carne viva, será impuro.

15E o sacerdote olhará a carne viva, e o dará por impuro. É impura a carne viva: é lepra.

16Mas quando a carne viva se mudar e tornar branca, então virá ao sacerdote;

17E o sacerdote olhará, e se a chaga se houver tornado branca, o sacerdote dará por limpo ao que tinha a chaga, e será limpo.

18E quando na carne, em sua pele, houver úlcera, e se sarar,

19E suceder no lugar da úlcera inchaço branco, ou mancha branca avermelhada, será mostrado ao sacerdote:

20E o sacerdote olhará; e se parecer estar mais baixa que sua pele, e seu pelo se houver tornado branco, o dará o sacerdote por impuro: é chaga de lepra que se originou na úlcera.

21E se o sacerdote a considerar, e não parecer nela pelo branco, nem estiver mais baixa que a pele, mas sim escura, então o sacerdote o encerrará por sete dias:

22E se se for estendendo pela pele, então o sacerdote o dará por impuro: é chaga.

23Porém se a mancha branca estiver em seu lugar, que não tenha estendido, é a cicatriz da úlcera; e o sacerdote o dará por limpo.

24Assim quando a carne tiver em sua pele queimadura de fogo, e houver no sarado do fogo mancha esbranquiçada, avermelhada ou branca,

25O sacerdote a olhará; e se o pelo se houver tornado branco na mancha, e parecer estar mais profunda que a pele, é lepra que saiu na queimadura; e o sacerdote declarará ao sujeito impuro, por ser chaga de lepra.

26Mas se o sacerdote a olhar, e não parecer na mancha pelo branco, nem estiver mais baixa que a pele, mas sim que está escura, lhe encerrará o sacerdote por sete dias;

27E ao sétimo dia o sacerdote a reconhecerá: se se houver ido estendendo pela pele, o sacerdote o dará por impuro: é chaga de lepra.

28Porém se a mancha estiver em seu lugar, e não se houver estendido na pele, a não ser que está escura, inchaço é da queimadura: o dará o sacerdote por limpo; que sinal da queimadura é.

29E ao homem ou mulher que lhe sair chaga na cabeça, ou no queixo,

30O sacerdote olhará a chaga; e se parecer estar mais profunda que a pele, e o pelo nela fora ruivo e fino, então o sacerdote o dará por impuro: é tinha, é lepra da cabeça ou do queixo.

31Mas quando o sacerdote houver olhado a chaga da tinha, e não parecer estar mais profunda que a pele, nem for nela pelo negro, o sacerdote encerrará ao que tem chagas da tinha por sete dias:

32E ao sétimo dia o sacerdote olhará a chaga: e se a tinha não parecer haver-se estendido, nem houver nela pelo ruivo, nem parecer a tinha mais profunda que a pele,

33Então o raparão, mas não raparão o lugar da tinha: e encerrará o sacerdote ao que tem a tinha por outros sete dias.

34E ao sétimo dia olhará o sacerdote a tinha; e se a tinha não houver estendido na pele, nem parecer estar mais profunda que a pele, o sacerdote o dará por limpo; e lavará suas roupas, e será limpo.

35Porém se a tinha se houver ido estendendo na pele depois de sua purificação,

36Então o sacerdote a olhará; e se a tinha houver estendido na pele, não busque o sacerdote o pelo ruivo, é impuro.

37Mas se lhe parecer que a tinha está detida, e que saiu nela o pelo negro, a tinha está sarada; ele está limpo, e por limpo o dará o sacerdote.

38Também o homem ou mulher, quando na pele de sua carne tiver machas, machas brancas,

39O sacerdote olhará: e se na pele de sua carne parecerem machas brancas algo escurecidas, é impigem que brotou na pele, está limpa a pessoa.

40E o homem, quando se lhe cair os cabelos da cabeça, é calvo, mas limpo.

41E se à parte de seu rosto se lhe cair os cabelos da cabeça, é calvo pela frente, mas limpo.

42Mas quando na calva ou na calva da frente houver chaga branca avermelhada, lepra é que brota em sua calva ou em sua calva da frente.

43Então o sacerdote o olhará, e se parecer a inchaço da chaga branca avermelhada em sua calva ou em sua calva da frente, como o parecer da lepra da pele da carne,

44Leproso é, é impuro; o sacerdote o dará logo por impuro; em sua cabeça tem sua chaga.

45E o leproso em quem houver chaga, suas roupas serão derrotados e sua cabeça descoberta, e com o lábio superior coberto proclamará: -Imundo! -Imundo!

46Durante todo o tempo que a chaga estiver nele será imundo; estará impuro: habitará sozinho; fora do acampamento será sua morada.

47E quando na roupa houver praga de lepra, em vestido de lã, ou em vestido de linho;

48Ou na urdidura ou em trama, de linho ou de lã, ou em pele, ou em qualquer obra de pele;

49E que a praga seja verde, ou vermelha, em roupa ou em pele, ou na urdidura, ou em trama, ou em qualquer obra de pele; praga é de lepra, e se há de mostrar ao sacerdote.

50E o sacerdote olhará a praga, e encerrará a coisa que tem praga por sete dias.

51E ao sétimo dia olhará a praga: e se houver estendido a praga na roupa, ou urdidura, ou na trama, ou em pele, ou em qualquer obra que se faz de peles, lepra roedora é a praga; impura será.

52Será queimada a roupa, ou urdidura ou trama, de lã ou de linho, ou qualquer obra de peles em que houver tal praga; porque lepra roedora é; ao fogo será queimada.

53E se o sacerdote olhar, e não parecer que a praga se tenha estendido na roupa, ou urdidura, ou na trama, ou em qualquer obra de peles;

54Então o sacerdote mandará que lavem onde está a praga, e o encerrará outra vez por sete dias.

55E o sacerdote olhará depois que a praga for lavada; e se parecer que a praga não mudou seu aspecto, ainda que não tenha estendido a praga, impura é; a queimarás ao fogo; corrosão é penetrante, esteja o estragado na face ou no verso daquela coisa.

56Mas se o sacerdote a vir, e parecer que a praga se escureceu depois que foi lavada, a cortará da roupa, ou da pele, ou da urdidura, ou da trama.

57E se parecer mais no vestido, ou urdidura, ou trama, ou em qualquer coisa de peles, esverdeando nela, queimarás ao fogo aquilo onde estiver a praga.

58Porém a roupa, ou urdidura, ou trama, ou qualquer coisa de pele que lavares, e que se lhe tirar a praga, se lavará segunda vez, e então será limpa.

59Esta é a lei da praga da lepra da roupa de lã ou de linho, ou da urdidura, ou da trama, ou de qualquer coisa de pele, para que seja dada por limpa ou por impura.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Detailed rules for the priest to diagnose 'leprosy' (a broad term for skin diseases) in people and even in fabrics, with precise visual criteria for declaring someone clean or unclean.

Explanation

The Hebrew term tsara'at covered a range of skin conditions, not just modern-day leprosy (Hansen's disease), and could also affect clothing — likely mold or fungus. The priest acted as a kind of public health officer, temporarily isolating suspected cases for observation, a quarantine principle remarkably advanced for its time. The diagnosed person had to live outside the camp and announce their condition, which seems harsh at first glance, but it protected the community from contagion and preserved the holiness of the camp where God dwelt. This shows God's concern both for the community's physical health and for the need for order and social responsibility in the face of serious disease.

Fun facts

  • The procedure of 'shutting up' the person for seven days of observation is one of the earliest documented quarantine protocols in history, millennia before modern medicine formalized the concept.
  • Jesus touched lepers to heal them (Matthew 8:3), a shocking gesture by the standards of the time, since touching a leper normally made a person unclean too — showing Jesus' power to reverse impurity instead of being contaminated by it.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Levítico 13:1This instruction was given to Moses and Aaron together, repeating the pattern from chapter 11 — another purity matter that directly involved the priests’ technical judgment.
  2. Levítico 13:2The word translated “leprosy” here is much broader than today’s Hansen’s disease: it covers blotches, swellings, scabs, and skin sores in general — anything suspicious went through the same examination by the priest, who acted as a kind of public health inspector, not a doctor treating one specific disease.
  3. Levítico 13:3White hair inside the spot and a sore that looked deeper than the surrounding skin were the two signs that led the priest to declare impurity right at the first exam, without needing a waiting period.
  4. Levítico 13:4When the skin mark didn’t show the more serious signs, the priest didn’t decide on the spot — he shut the person away for seven days to see whether the mark grew or stayed the same. It was a quarantine-by-observation system, with no definitive diagnosis at the first exam.
  5. Levítico 13:5If after the first week of quarantine the mark hadn’t changed or grown, the priest still didn’t decide: he confined the person for seven more days, giving extra time to be sure.
  6. Levítico 13:6If after the two weeks of observation the mark had faded, the case was considered a simple passing swelling, not the serious condition — the person washed their clothes and returned to normal life.
  7. Levítico 13:7But if after being declared clean the mark started spreading again, the person had to present themselves to the priest again — the initial diagnosis wasn’t final forever; it could be revisited.
  8. Levítico 13:8Seeing that the mark had genuinely spread after all that, the priest then confirmed the impurity — the continued growth of the mark was what settled the more serious diagnosis.
  9. Levítico 13:9A new case begins here within the chapter: whenever this kind of mark appeared on someone, the person had to be brought to the priest for evaluation, no exceptions.
  10. Levítico 13:10White hair in the mark and exposed raw flesh inside it were the most serious signs of all — unlike the other marks in the chapter, this combination left no doubt.
  11. Levítico 13:11When there was exposed raw flesh, the priest didn’t even need to confine the person for seven days to observe — the case was already considered serious and chronic enough to declare impurity on the spot.
  12. Levítico 13:12It seems contradictory: if the mark covered the person’s whole body from head to foot, they were declared clean. The more widely accepted reading is that, without exposed raw flesh, the sign considered dangerous wasn’t present — the standard here was an open sore inside the mark, not the size of the mark itself.
  13. Levítico 13:13Here comes the formal confirmation of the paradox from verse 12: if the white mark had covered the entire body without any raw flesh appearing, the priest declared the person clean.
  14. Levítico 13:14But the decisive standard appears here: on the day any raw flesh showed up inside that white mark, the person came to be considered unclean — an open sore always outweighed the standard of the mark’s size.
  15. Levítico 13:15Seeing exposed raw flesh, the priest confirmed the impurity without hesitation — the same decisive standard repeats, reinforcing that an open sore was the most serious sign in the whole system.
  16. Levítico 13:16But the process allowed for recovery: if that exposed flesh healed and turned white like the rest, the person could return to the priest to be reassessed.
  17. Levítico 13:17Seeing that the sore had genuinely healed and turned white, the priest reversed the diagnosis and declared the person clean — the system didn’t lock anyone into a permanent label without checking again.
  18. Levítico 13:18This passage deals with a different case: a boil or sore that had already healed but left a mark on the skin afterward — one more variation within the same examination system.
  19. Levítico 13:19If a white or reddish swelling appeared where the healed sore had been, the person needed to show this new sign to the priest for evaluation, even though they had already healed before.
  20. Levítico 13:20If this new sign looked deeper than the skin and had white hair, the priest declared impurity — the same two standards as always, now applied to an old scar.
  21. Levítico 13:21If the sign had no white hair and didn’t look deeper, but was shrinking, the priest still didn’t decide: he confined the person for seven days, the same waiting process seen at the start of the chapter.
  22. Levítico 13:22If after the week of waiting the sign had spread significantly, then the priest confirmed the impurity — continued growth decided the case.
  23. Levítico 13:23But if the mark had stayed in the same place without growing, it was just a normal inflammation of the old scar — the priest declared the person clean, no mystery behind it.
  24. Levítico 13:24A new scenario: a burn from fire that, while healing, develops a white or reddish mark — the examination system extends even to marks left by burns.
  25. Levítico 13:25White hair in the mark and an appearance deeper than the skin — the same standards as always — here indicated that the serious condition had “sprouted” from the burn, not just an ordinary scar.
  26. Levítico 13:26Without these more serious signs, the priest again didn’t decide on the spot: he confined the person for seven days to observe whether the burn mark changed.
  27. Levítico 13:27If after the week the burn mark had spread significantly, the priest confirmed the serious condition — the same standard of continued growth used throughout the chapter.
  28. Levítico 13:28If the mark had stopped spreading, it was just an ordinary sign of the burn healing, without seriousness — the person was declared clean.
  29. Levítico 13:29Here begins a section specifically for sores on the head or beard, handled with slightly different standards than marks on the rest of the body.
  30. Levítico 13:30The “scall” on the head or beard, likely a fungal infection of the scalp, followed a similar standard but with thin yellow hair instead of white hair — a sign that the text is cataloguing different skin conditions, not treating everything as a single disease.
  31. Levítico 13:31Without black hair and without a deeper appearance, the priest confined the person with a scall on the head for seven days, the same waiting system applied to this scalp condition.
  32. Levítico 13:32If after the week the scall hadn’t grown and no thin yellow hair had appeared, the process moved on to one more verification step before any final decision.
  33. Levítico 13:33The person shaved the hair around it, but not over the mark itself — a practical precaution so as not to interfere with the exact observation of the affected area during one more week of waiting.
  34. Levítico 13:34If after this second week the scall was still not spreading, the priest finally declared the person clean, and they washed their clothes to close the process.
  35. Levítico 13:35But if after already being declared clean the scall started spreading again, the case had to be reopened and reassessed — the same principle of review seen elsewhere in the chapter.
  36. Levítico 13:36In this case of recurrence, the priest no longer even needed to look for thin yellow hair: the simple fact that it had started growing again was already enough to confirm the impurity.
  37. Levítico 13:37But if the scall had genuinely stopped and even black hair had grown back there, it was a sign of complete healing — black hair returning meant the skin had gone back to normal.
  38. Levítico 13:38A new condition appears here: white spots on the skin of men or women, a category apart from the previous ones.
  39. Levítico 13:39If these white spots were merely dull-looking and receding, it was a kind of harmless skin rash — the priest declared the person clean without any quarantine at all.
  40. Levítico 13:40Common baldness, without swelling or a reddish mark, was declared clean without exam or quarantine. The text makes clear that baldness by itself had nothing unclean about it — it only became a problem if a suspicious mark appeared on top of the bald spot.
  41. Levítico 13:41Baldness at the front of the head, just like the common baldness of the previous verse, was also declared clean on its own — losing hair wasn’t a sign of impurity.
  42. Levítico 13:42Only when a reddish-white mark appeared on the bald spot did the case become grounds for examination — baldness itself was never the problem, only a suspicious mark over it.
  43. Levítico 13:43The priest examined this mark on the bald spot with the same standards used on the rest of the body: a reddish-white color similar to that of skin with hair.
  44. Levítico 13:44With the signs confirmed, the person was declared a leper even though the mark was only on the bald head — the same diagnostic system applied regardless of where the mark appeared.
  45. Levítico 13:45Torn clothes, an uncovered head, and crying “Unclean, unclean” when approaching someone weren’t punishment — they were a mandatory public warning, a kind of ancient public health system meant to prevent accidental contact for as long as the condition lasted.
  46. Levítico 13:46For as long as the condition lasted, the person had to live isolated, outside the camp — a temporary measure of separation, tied to the length of the illness, not a permanent sentence.
  47. Levítico 13:47In the most widely accepted reading today, “leprosy” in wool, linen, or leather clothing is mold, fungus, or some blight that degrades the fabric, showing up as greenish or reddish patches. The same name and the same examination process applied both to a mold stain on clothing and to a mark on skin, because the ritual logic — something “eating away” at what should be whole — was the same.
  48. Levítico 13:48The same examination logic extended to fabrics: warp or woven thread, of linen or wool, and even leather items could “catch” this kind of mark, treated with the same process as human skin.
  49. Levítico 13:49A greenish or reddish mark on clothing or leather was the warning sign that required showing the item to the priest — probably mold or fungus, but treated with the same protocol as skin.
  50. Levítico 13:50Just as he did with people, the priest also shut away suspicious objects for seven days before deciding anything — the same quarantine-by-observation system, now applied to fabric.
  51. Levítico 13:51If after the week the mark had spread through the fabric or leather, it was considered a blight that “eats away” at the material, and the item was declared ruined.
  52. Levítico 13:52The solution for a condemned piece of clothing or leather was simple and final: burn it — there was no middle ground once the mark had truly spread.
  53. Levítico 13:53If the mark hadn’t grown after the week of waiting, the process moved to one more step before discarding the item for good.
  54. Levítico 13:54In this case the priest had the affected item washed and shut it away again for seven more days — giving it another chance before deciding between saving or burning it.
  55. Levítico 13:55If after washing the mark still looked the same, even without growing further, the item was still burned — the fact that it didn’t disappear with washing was enough to condemn the fabric.
  56. Levítico 13:56But if the mark had faded after washing, the priest had just the affected piece torn out of the fabric, saving the rest of the item.
  57. Levítico 13:57If after that the mark appeared again in another part of the same item, then the final solution was to burn everything — the material was considered permanently compromised.
  58. Levítico 13:58But if the washing had actually solved the problem, one more wash was enough and the item was cleared as clean — the process allowed saving clothes that had only been stained on the surface.
  59. Levítico 13:59This verse closes the chapter by summing up its purpose: to give the priests a clear standard for declaring fabric or leather clean or unclean, the same way it was done with human skin.

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