What Does Leviticus 13:47 Mean?
The garment also in which the stroke of the striking is, whether a wool garment, or a linen garment;
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
The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen garment;THE KEY
The hidden force in “plague” is touch: the mark can land on cloth as well as skin.
THE MEANING
The affliction is not limited to a body; it can be present in the garment that covers it, whether wool or linen. The Hebrew word negaʿ carries the sense of a touch or stroke, so the mark is heard as something that has reached even the fabric.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that a mark belongs only to the body; even its covering can bear it.
THE ROOT
נֶגַע
negaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
To touch, reach, or strike; as a noun, a stroke or affliction.
“stroke of the striking” in this verse is negaʿ. English “plague” can sound like a general label, but negaʿ carries the sense of a touch or blow that lands. Here that mark reaches beyond skin to the garment itself.
ALSO GROWS
nagaʿ: To touch, reach, or strike.
נָגַע
The verb reveals the physical force inside the verse’s “plague”: something has touched or struck the fabric.
niggaʿ: To be struck or afflicted.
נִגַּע
This form makes the garment the surface that bears the affliction.
higgiaʿ: To reach or arrive.
הִגִּיעַ
The same root can describe what reaches a place; here the mark reaches even the material covering the body.
THE PATTERN
A condition can become visible in what covers a person, bringing the covering itself into discernment.
And for the stroke of a garment, and of a house.Now Joshua was clothed with soiled garments, and stood before the messenger. And he answered and said to those standing before him, Lift the soiled garments off him. And to him he said, Look, I have caused your crookedness to cross over from you, and I will clothe you with a change of garments.And deliver others with fear, snatching them out of the fire, hating even the tunic stained by the flesh.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Moses, One more stroke will I bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. After this he will let you go from here, and when he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here altogether.Exodus 11:1 uses the same Hebrew word, נֶגַע (negaʿ, a stroke or plague), for the blow upon Egypt. The shared root lets the garment’s mark be heard as a touch that lands, not only as a general label.
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