What Does Leviticus 13:53 Mean in the King James?
And if the priest shall look, and, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin;
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 Hebrew names the mark with a word rooted in touching or striking, then makes the crucial question whether that affliction has spread.
THE MEANING
The mark is present, but its reach remains bounded in the cloth or leather. The verse holds presence and expansion apart: a real condition is not automatically a growing one. That distinction speaks now wherever a mark feels like it has become the whole story.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a visible mark is already expanding or taking over the whole.
THE ROOT
נֶגַע
negaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
n-g-ʿ
To touch, reach, or strike; as a noun, a blow, mark, or affliction.
The word translated “plague” is negaʿ, from the root for touching or striking. The verse distinguishes the mark itself from its movement through the material: the affliction is there, but it has not spread.
ALSO GROWS
nagaʿ: To touch, reach, or strike.
נָגַע
Genesis 20:6 uses this verb for touching; the same root carries contact into the word for affliction here.
negaʿ: A touch, blow, mark, or affliction.
נֶגַע
This noun is rendered “plague” here and in Psalm 91:10, where the affliction is described as not coming near a dwelling.
THE PATTERN
The reach of a condition is part of what it is: a contained mark and a spreading one are not the same state.
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:Then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean.Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?THE THREAD
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.The word rendered “plague” in both verses is נֶגַע (negaʿ), an affliction or strike. Leviticus watches whether it spreads through a garment; Psalm 91 pictures it not coming near a dwelling, carrying the same root’s question of how far an affliction reaches.
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