What Does Leviticus 13:53 Mean?
And if the priest looks, and behold, the stroke has not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the weft, or in anything 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
And if the priest shall look, and, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin;THE KEY
The Hebrew names the mark with a word rooted in touching or striking, then makes the crucial question whether that affliction has spread.
THE MEANING
The mark is present, but its reach remains bounded in the cloth or leather. The verse holds presence and expansion apart: a real condition is not automatically a growing one. That distinction speaks now wherever a mark feels like it has become the whole story.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a visible mark is already expanding or taking over the whole.
THE ROOT
נֶגַע
negaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
n-g-ʿ
To touch, reach, or strike; as a noun, a blow, mark, or affliction.
“stroke” in this verse is negaʿ. The word translated “plague” is negaʿ, from the root for touching or striking. The verse distinguishes the mark itself from its movement through the material: the affliction is there, but it has not spread.
ALSO GROWS
nagaʿ: To touch, reach, or strike.
נָגַע
Genesis 20:6 uses this verb for touching; the same root carries contact into the word for affliction here.
negaʿ: A touch, blow, mark, or affliction.
נֶגַע
This noun is rendered “plague” here and in Psalm 91:10, where the affliction is described as not coming near a dwelling.
THE PATTERN
The reach of a condition is part of what it is: a contained mark and a spreading one are not the same state.
And the priest shall look upon him on the seventh day; and behold, if the stroke in its sight stands, and the stroke has not spread in the skin; then the priest shall shut him in seven days more;Then the priest shall come and look and see, and if the stroke has spread in the house, it is a gnawing stroke in the house; it is soiled.Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?THE THREAD
No harm meets you, and no blow draws near to your tent.The word rendered “plague” in both verses is נֶגַע (negaʿ), an affliction or strike. Leviticus watches whether it spreads through a garment; Psalm 91 pictures it not coming near a dwelling, carrying the same root’s question of how far an affliction reaches.
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