13The Lord gave Moses and Aaron these regulations. ²If anyone has a sore on his skin or a boil or an inflammation which could develop into a dreaded skin disease, he shall be brought to the Aaronite priest. ³The priest shall examine the sore, and if the hairs in it have turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the surrounding skin, it is a dreaded skin disease, and the priest shall pronounce the person unclean. ⁴But if the sore is white and does not appear to be deeper than the skin round it and the hairs have not turned white, the priest shall isolate the person for seven days. ⁵The priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if in his opinion the sore looks the same and has not spread, he shall isolate him for another seven days. ⁶The priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if the sore has faded and has not spread, he shall pronounce him ritually clean; it is only a sore. The person shall wash his clothes and be ritually clean. ⁷But if the sore spreads after the priest has examined him and pronounced him clean, he must appear before the priest again. ⁸The priest will examine him again, and if it has spread, he shall pronounce him unclean; it is a dreaded skin disease.

⁹If anyone has a dreaded skin disease, he shall be brought to the priest, ¹⁰who will examine him. If there is a white sore on his skin which turns the hairs white and is full of pus, ¹¹it is a chronic skin disease. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; there is no need to isolate him, because he is obviously unclean. ¹²If the skin disease spreads and covers the person from head to foot, ¹³the priest shall examine him again. If he finds that it actually has covered the whole body, he shall pronounce the person ritually clean. If his whole skin has turned white, he is ritually clean. ¹⁴But from the moment an open sore appears, he is unclean. ¹⁵The priest shall examine him again, and if he sees an open sore, he shall pronounce him unclean. An open sore means a dreaded skin disease, and the person is unclean. ¹⁶But when the sore heals and becomes white again, the person shall go to the priest, ¹⁷who will examine him again. If the sore has turned white, he is ritually clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

¹⁸If anyone has a boil that has healed ¹⁹and if afterwards a white swelling or a reddish-white spot appears where the boil was, he shall go to the priest. ²⁰The priest shall examine him, and if the spot seems to be deeper than the surrounding skin and the hairs in it have turned white, he shall pronounce him unclean. It is a dreaded skin disease that has started in the boil. ²¹But if the priest examines it and finds that the hairs in it have not turned white and that it is not deeper than the surrounding skin, but is light in colour, the priest shall isolate him for seven days. ²²If the spot spreads, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; he is diseased. ²³But if it remains unchanged and does not spread, it is only the scar left from the boil, and the priest shall pronounce him ritually clean.

²⁴In the case of a person who has been burnt, if the raw flesh becomes white or reddish-white, ²⁵the priest shall examine him. If the hairs in the spot have turned white and it appears deeper than the surrounding skin, it is a dreaded skin disease that has started in the burn, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. ²⁶But if the hairs in it have not turned white and it is not deeper than the surrounding skin, but is light in colour, the priest shall isolate him for seven days. ²⁷The priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if it is spreading, it is a dreaded skin disease, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. ²⁸But if the spot remains unchanged and does not spread and is light in colour, it is not a dreaded skin disease. The priest shall pronounce him ritually clean, because it is only a scar from the burn.

²⁹When a man or a woman has a sore on the head or the chin, ³⁰the priest shall examine it. If it seems to be deeper than the surrounding skin and the hairs in it are yellowish and thin, it is a dreaded skin disease, and he shall pronounce the person unclean. ³¹If, when the priest examines him, the sore does not appear to be deeper than the surrounding skin, but there are still no healthy hairs in it, he shall isolate him for seven days. ³²The priest shall examine the sore again on the seventh day, and if it has not spread and there are no yellowish hairs in it and it does not seem to be deeper than the surrounding skin, ³³the person shall shave the head except the area round the sore. The priest shall then isolate him for another seven days. ³⁴On the seventh day the priest shall again examine the sore, and if it has not spread and does not seem to be deeper than the surrounding skin, he shall pronounce him ritually clean. The person shall wash his clothes, and he will be clean. ³⁵But if the sore spreads after he has been pronounced clean, ³⁶the priest shall examine him again. If the sore has spread, he need not look for yellowish hairs; the person is obviously unclean. ³⁷But if in the priest’s opinion the sore has not spread and healthy hairs are growing in it, the sore has healed, and the priest shall pronounce him ritually clean.

³⁸When a man or a woman has white spots on the skin, ³⁹the priest shall examine that person. If the spots are dull white, it is only a blemish that has broken out on the skin; the person is ritually clean.

^40–41If a man loses his hair at the back or the front of his head, this does not make him unclean. ⁴²But if a reddish-white sore appears on the bald spot, it is a dreaded skin disease. ⁴³The priest shall examine him, and if there is a reddish-white sore, ⁴⁴the priest shall pronounce him unclean, because of the dreaded skin disease on his head.

⁴⁵A person who has a dreaded skin disease must wear torn clothes, leave his hair uncombed, cover the lower part of his face, and call out, “Unclean, unclean!” ⁴⁶He remains unclean as long as he has the disease, and he must live outside the camp, away from others.

Read in Logos