What Does Leviticus 14:56 Mean?
And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a shining spot.
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 for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot:THE KEY
The word for “rising” belongs to the Hebrew family of lifting and bearing, so a raised mark shares its root with the language of carrying.
THE MEANING
The verse names three distinct changes on the skin: a raised swelling, a scab, and a bright patch. Each has its own word, so the body’s visible condition is not one blur but a set of particular signs.
THE ROOT
שְׂאֵת
se'et
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-s-ʾ
to lift, carry, bear
The noun for “rising” comes from the same lift-and-carry family as נשא (nasa). Its wider family also speaks of bearing, a kinship the English label does not show.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: to lift, carry, bear
נָשָׂא
This verb makes the lifting and bearing senses of the root explicit.
massa: a load or burden
מַשָּׂא
This word for a load belongs to the same family, joining the sense of what is lifted with what is carried.
סַפַּחַת
sappachat
GROWS FROM
ספח
s-p-ḥ
to join, attach, add
The noun for “scab” sits in a root-family for joining or attaching. Its name carries the sense of something adhering to the skin alongside its visible form.
ALSO GROWS
saphach: to join, attach, add
סָפַח
In 1 Samuel 2:36 this verb has the sense of being attached to a group, showing the root’s wider use.
sappachat: a scab or scurf
סַפַּחַת
The skin condition named here carries the same root-family sense of attachment.
THE PATTERN
A condition on the body becomes legible through its particular visible form.
When a man has in the skin of his flesh a lifting, a scab, or a shining spot, and it is in the skin of his flesh like the stroke of the striking; then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the priests;And it happened, while he was in one of the towns, and look, a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell upon his face and begged him, saying, Lord, if you will, you are able to make me clean.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 noun behind “rising” belongs to נשא (nasa), the same root rendered “borne” in Isaiah. A raised mark and the carrying of grief resonate through one Hebrew family of lifting and bearing.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us