What Does Leviticus 13:55 Mean?
And the priest shall look upon the stroke, after it is washed; and behold, if the stroke has not changed its color, and the stroke has not spread; it is soiled; you shall burn it in the fire; it is gnawing inward, whether it is bald within or without.
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 the priest shall look on the plague, after that it is washed: and, behold, if the plague have not changed his colour, and the plague be not spread; it is unclean; thou shalt burn it in the fire; it is fret inward, whether it be bare within or without.THE KEY
A garment may stop changing and spreading after washing and still be unclean because the damage has hollowed its material from within.
THE MEANING
After washing, the priest finds no change in appearance and no spread, yet the garment is still named unclean. The verse identifies the remaining condition as corrosion in the material and commands the cloth burned in fire. An unchanged surface and inward damage remain true at the same time.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If a mark does not spread and survives washing, it cannot signal serious damage.
THE ROOT
פְּחֶתֶת
peḥethet
GROWS FROM
פחת
p-ḥ-t
To sink or hollow out; a pit or sunken place.
“gnawing inward” in this verse is peḥethet. The word rendered “fret inward” names corrosion or an eaten-away place. Its root evokes hollowing, so the verse describes damage in the cloth’s substance even when its outward sign has not spread.
ALSO GROWS
paḥat: Pit, hollow, or sunken place
פַּחַת
A pit is defined by what lies below the surrounding surface, echoing the verse’s inward damage.
peḥethet: Corrosion; an eaten-away place in cloth
פְּחֶתֶת
This is the condition the verse names as the reason the garment remains unclean.
נֶגַע
negaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
n-g-ʿ
To touch, reach, or strike; by extension, a blow or affliction.
“Plague” can sound like a separate substance, while its Hebrew root also names touching and striking. The word carries an image of impact that English leaves less visible.
ALSO GROWS
nagaʿ: To touch, reach, or strike
נָגַע
The verb shares the seed behind the cloth’s affliction, linking the condition to contact or impact.
nagûaʿ: Stricken or afflicted
נָגוּעַ
This form appears in Isaiah 53:4, where the same root describes one who is stricken.
THE PATTERN
A surface that appears unchanged may still conceal an inward condition that inspection brings to light.
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.Each one's work will be made visible, for the day will show it, because it is uncovered in fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.THE THREAD
Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our wounds. Yet we reckoned him struck, beaten by God, and bowed low.Isaiah uses “stricken,” a form from the same Hebrew root as the garment’s “plague.” English separates the cloth’s lesion from a person’s affliction; the shared root preserves their image of impact.
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