What Does Leviticus 13:55 Mean in the King James?
And the priest shall look on the plague, after that it is washed: and, behold, if the plague have not changed his colour, and the plague be not spread; it is unclean; thou shalt burn it in the fire; it is fret inward, whether it be bare within or without.
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
A garment may stop changing and spreading after washing and still be unclean because the damage has hollowed its material from within.
THE MEANING
After washing, the priest finds no change in appearance and no spread, yet the garment is still named unclean. The verse identifies the remaining condition as corrosion in the material and commands the cloth burned in fire. An unchanged surface and inward damage remain true at the same time.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If a mark does not spread and survives washing, it cannot signal serious damage.
THE ROOT
פְּחֶתֶת
peḥethet
GROWS FROM
פחת
p-ḥ-t
To sink or hollow out; a pit or sunken place.
The word rendered “fret inward” names corrosion or an eaten-away place. Its root evokes hollowing, so the verse describes damage in the cloth’s substance even when its outward sign has not spread.
ALSO GROWS
paḥat: Pit, hollow, or sunken place
פַּחַת
A pit is defined by what lies below the surrounding surface, echoing the verse’s inward damage.
peḥethet: Corrosion; an eaten-away place in cloth
פְּחֶתֶת
This is the condition the verse names as the reason the garment remains unclean.
נֶגַע
negaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
n-g-ʿ
To touch, reach, or strike; by extension, a blow or affliction.
“Plague” can sound like a separate substance, while its Hebrew root also names touching and striking. The word carries an image of impact that English leaves less visible.
ALSO GROWS
nagaʿ: To touch, reach, or strike
נָגַע
The verb shares the seed behind the cloth’s affliction, linking the condition to contact or impact.
nagûaʿ: Stricken or afflicted
נָגוּעַ
This form appears in Isaiah 53:4, where the same root describes one who is stricken.
THE PATTERN
A surface that appears unchanged may still conceal an inward condition that inspection brings to light.
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.Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.THE THREAD
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.Isaiah uses “stricken,” a form from the same Hebrew root as the garment’s “plague.” English separates the cloth’s lesion from a person’s affliction; the shared root preserves their image of impact.
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