What Does Leviticus 13:25 Mean in the King James?
Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and it be in sight deeper than the skin; it is a leprosy broken out of the burning: wherefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word translated “broken out” is also the word for blossoming: the affliction is pictured as erupting from the burn.
THE MEANING
The verse identifies a bodily condition through visible signs: white hair in the bright spot, an appearance deeper than the skin, and an outbreak at the site of a burn. It pronounces the person unclean and names the condition a plague of leprosy, keeping the bodily mark and the boundary-making verdict in the same frame.
THE ROOT
פָּרָחָה
pāreḥāh
GROWS FROM
פרח
p-r-ḥ
To sprout, blossom, or break forth.
Here the verb means the affliction has broken out, from the same root that names a flower or the act of sprouting. The image is of an eruption coming into view at the burned place, not just an abstract label.
ALSO GROWS
peraḥ: Flower; blossom.
פֶּרַח
The flower carries the root’s image of something emerging visibly, the same image used here for the affliction.
pōrēaḥ: Sprouting; blossoming; breaking forth.
פֹּרֵחַ
This form describes a boil “breaking forth” in Exodus 9:9, linking the same root to another visible skin eruption.
עָמֹק
ʿāmōq
GROWS FROM
עמק
ʿ-m-q
To be deep or become deep.
“deeper” in this verse is ʿāmōq. The Hebrew describes the patch’s appearance as deep relative to the skin, making depth part of what is seen. The same root names a valley, carrying the idea of depth from the body to the land.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēmeq: Valley; lowland.
עֵמֶק
A valley is a low place in the land, showing the root’s spatial sense of depth.
heʿĕmîq: To deepen; make deep.
הֶעֱמִיק
This verb keeps the same root’s sense of depth as an action, illuminating the verse’s description of how the mark appears in relation to the skin.
THE PATTERN
A visible appearance is read alongside what lies beneath it before a condition or person is named.
And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.THE THREAD
And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.The same root, פרח (p-r-ḥ), meaning “sprout, blossom, break forth,” describes the boil breaking forth in the skin. That shared verb links the burned spot here to another bodily eruption, keeping the image concrete and visible.
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