Leviticus 13:1-3

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

13 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

²When a man has a swelling on his skin, a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes the disease of ^[a]leprosy in his skin, then he shall be brought to the priest, to Aaron or one of his sons.

³The priest shall look at the diseased spot on his skin, and if the hair in it has turned white and the disease appears depressed and deeper than his skin, it is a leprous disease; and the priest shall examine him, and pronounce him unclean.

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Footnotes

Leviticus 13:2 Authorities are generally agreed that there certainly was true leprosy as it is known today in the Near East in New Testament times. But from the details of the disease in Lev. 13, it is believed that other very serious skin disorders were also included under the heading of “leprosy” in earlier times. Leprosy in the Old Testament, therefore, is not to be considered as confined to the traits by which it is known today, but rather defined by the symptoms, the treatment, and the history of individual cases as recorded in Leviticus and elsewhere. That it was worse than death is implied by the words of Aaron when his sister Miriam was stricken with it: “Alas, my lord [Moses],. .. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb” (Num. 12:11, 12 kjv).