What Does Leviticus 13:27 Mean in the King James?
And the priest shall look upon him the seventh day: and if it be spread much abroad in the skin, then 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 priest’s authority waits on the skin’s movement: expansion observed across seven days turns inspection into a verdict.
THE MEANING
The priest looks again on the seventh day, and spreading across the skin determines the declaration. The verse makes the change itself evidence, not mere presence. “Unclean” names a ritual status here; it does not itself assign moral fault.
THE ROOT
פָּשֹׂה תִפְשֶׂה
pāśōh tifśeh
GROWS FROM
פשה
pāśāh
Spread, extend outward.
The Hebrew pairs פָּשֹׂה (pāśōh, spreading) with תִפְשֶׂה (tifśeh, it spreads), intensifying the condition. English preserves the emphasis in “spread much abroad,” but the repeated root makes the point plain: expansion itself tips the assessment.
ALSO GROWS
pāśōh: Spreading; to spread.
פָּשֹׂה
This infinitive form begins the emphatic pairing that focuses attention on expansion.
tifśeh: It spreads.
תִפְשֶׂה
This verb names the change in the skin that determines the priest’s verdict.
נֶגַע
negaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
nāgaʿ
Touch, reach, or strike; the related noun can mean an affliction or stroke.
The word translated “plague” belongs to the touch-and-strike family and can name an affliction or lesion. It adds the sense of a marked bodily affliction without naming its cause.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaʿ: Touch, reach, or strike.
נָגַע
The verb supplies the root sense behind the word used for the skin’s affliction.
negaʿ: An affliction, stroke, or lesion.
נֶגַע
This noun names the condition the priest observes.
וְטִמֵּא
vetimmēʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
Be impure; render or declare impure.
“pronounce him unclean” in this verse is vetimmēʾ. The priest’s declaration belongs to a vocabulary of ritual status: the same root names being unclean and declaring something unclean. This keeps the verse’s ruling specific to its classification, without making it a judgment about the person’s character.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmēʾ: Unclean, ritually impure.
טָמֵא
This adjective names the status declared in the verse.
ṭumʾāh: Impurity, ritual uncleanness.
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the state belonging to the same root as the priest’s declaration.
THE PATTERN
A bodily condition is assessed through what becomes visible, and its status follows what the examination finds.
And the priest shall look on him the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more:And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.THE THREAD
And the priest shall look on him the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more:Both verses use פשה (pāśāh, spread): verse 5 describes a mark that has not spread, while verse 27 describes expansion that changes the priest’s ruling. Together they make the threshold visible: the condition’s spread, rather than its mere presence, determines this declaration.
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