What Does Leviticus 13:49 Mean?
And if the stroke is greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in the weft, or in anything of skin; it is a striking, and it shall be shown to the priest;
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
And if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it is a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest:THE KEY
The word translated “plague” grows from a root for touch or strike, joining the marks on cloth and skin in one language of contact.
THE MEANING
The verse names a greenish or reddish mark wherever it appears, in a garment’s weave, in leather, or on skin, and brings it before the priest. The material bearing the mark does not make it invisible or insignificant.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A mark matters only when it appears on the body itself.
THE ROOT
נֶגַע
negaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
n-g-ʿ
To touch, reach, or strike.
“stroke” in this verse is negaʿ. The word negaʿ names the affliction, while its root also means to touch or strike. That shared root makes the visible mark a sign of contact, whether it appears on woven cloth, leather, or skin.
ALSO GROWS
nagaʿ: To touch or reach.
נָגַע
This verb shares the root of negaʿ and brings the idea of contact into the verse’s word for affliction.
naguaʿ: Stricken or afflicted.
נָגוּעַ
This form carries the same root into a description of someone who has been struck, a connection echoed in Isaiah 53:4.
THE PATTERN
A visible sign is brought into examination before it settles into judgment.
And the one who holds the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seems to me that something like a stroke is in the house.The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Test everything, and hold fast to what is good.THE THREAD
Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our wounds. Yet we reckoned him struck, beaten by God, and bowed low.The Hebrew word translated “plague” here and the word translated “stricken” in Isaiah 53:4 share the root נגע, touch or strike. The same contact-language connects a mark on fabric or skin with a person described as stricken.
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