What Does Leviticus 13:25 Mean?
Then the priest shall look upon it; and behold, if the hair in the shining spot has turned white, and it is in its sight deeper than the skin; it is a striking that has bloomed out of the burn; therefore the priest shall declare him soiled; it is the stroke of the striking.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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.
“bloomed out” in this verse is pāreḥāh. 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 upon the stroke in the skin of the flesh; and when the hair in the stroke has turned white, and the stroke in its sight is deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a stroke of the striking; and the priest shall look upon him, and declare him soiled.But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
And it shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth in blisters 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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