What Does Leviticus 13:48 Mean?
Whether it be in the warp, or in the weft; of linen, or of wool; whether in a skin, or in anything made of skin;
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
Whether it be in the warp, or woof; of linen, or of woollen; whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin;THE KEY
Here the inspection reaches beyond the finished cloth to its crossing threads and to every thing made of skin.
THE MEANING
The condition is considered wherever it marks the material: the warp and woof, linen or wool, skin, and anything made of skin. Woven structure and worked hide both fall within the same field of examination.
THE ROOT
עֵרֶב
ʿērev
GROWS FROM
ערב
ʿ-r-b
To intermingle or braid together.
“weft” in this verse is ʿērev. The word for woof carries the root sense of intermingling. The verse names the crossing component of the weave, so the inspection reaches into what is joined together, not only the finished fabric.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārav: To intermingle, braid, or exchange.
עָרַב
This verb makes the woof’s joining action visible: it crosses through the warp to form the cloth.
ʿērev rav: A mixed multitude.
עֵרֶב רַב
This phrase uses the root for things gathered together, echoing how the woof mingles with the warp.
עוֹר
ʿor
GROWS FROM
עור
ʿ-w-r
Skin or hide, the body’s outer covering or hide used as material.
Hebrew uses one noun for skin on the body and hide as material. That shared word places a living surface and a worked covering in the same material category, alongside woven fibers.
ALSO GROWS
ʿor: Skin or hide.
עוֹר
The same noun names the skin and the material made into leather goods in this verse.
ʿorot: Skins or hides.
עוֹרוֹת
The plural names hides as material, linking the worked skin here with the same word for a body’s covering.
THE PATTERN
A visible condition is handled where it manifests, whether on an object, in a dwelling, or on a person.
The garment also in which the stroke of the striking is, whether a wool garment, or a linen garment;When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you as a holding, and I set the striking of the skin on a house in the land of your holding.And a leper came to him, pleading with him, falling to his knees before him, and saying, "If you will, you are able to make me clean."THE THREAD
And the LORD God made tunics of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.The same Hebrew noun עוֹר (ʿor), meaning skin or hide, appears here and in the account of the coats of skins. That shared word links the hide examined in this verse with a material used to make coverings, placing worked skin beside woven cloth.
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