Imamat 13:29-30

Scall on the Head or in the Beard

13:29 “When a man or a woman has an infection on the head or in the beard, ¹  13:30 the priest is to examine the infection, ²  and if ³  it appears to be deeper than the skin ⁴  and the hair in it is reddish yellow and thin, then the priest is to pronounce the person unclean. ⁵  It is scall, ⁶  a disease of the head or the beard. ⁷ 

Imamat 13:43-44

13:43 The priest is to examine it, ⁸  and if ⁹  the swelling of the infection is reddish white in the back or front bald area like the appearance of a disease on the skin of the body, ¹⁰  13:44 he is a diseased man. He is unclean. The priest must surely pronounce him unclean because of his infection on his head. ¹¹ 

[13:29]  ¹ tn Heb “And a man or a woman if there is in him an infection in head or in beard.”

[13:29]  sn The shift here is from diseases that are on the (relatively) bare skin of the body to the scalp area of the male or female head or the bearded area of the male face.

[13:30]  ² tn Heb “and the priest shall see the infection.”

[13:30]  ³ tn Heb “and behold.”

[13:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “its appearance is deep ‘from’ (comparative מִן, min, “deeper than”) the skin.”

[13:30]  ⁵ tn This is the declarative Piel of the verb טָמֵא (tame’; cf. the note on v. 3 above).

[13:30]  ⁶ tn The exact identification of this disease is unknown. Cf. KJV “dry scall”; NASB “a scale”; NIV, NCV, NRSV “an itch”; NLT “a contagious skin disease.” For a discussion of “scall” disease in the hair, which is a crusty scabby disease of the skin under the hair that also affects the hair itself, see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 192-93, and J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:793-94. The Hebrew word rendered “scall” (נֶתֶק, neteq) is related to a verb meaning “to tear; to tear out; to tear apart.” It may derive from the scratching and/or the tearing out of the hair or the scales of the skin in response to the itching sensation caused by the disease.

[13:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “It is scall. It is the disease of the head or the beard.”

[13:43]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the priest shall see it” (cf. KJV). The MT has “him/it” which some take to refer to the person as a whole (i.e., “him”; see, e.g., J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:770; NIV, NRSV, etc.), while others take it as a reference to the “infection” (נֶגַע, nega’) in v. 42 (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 172, 177). Smr has “her/it,” which would probably refer to “disease” (צָרַעַת, tsara’at) in v. 42. The general pattern in the chapter suggests that “it,” either the infection or the disease, is the object of the examination (see, e.g., v. 3 above and v. 50 below).

[13:43]  ⁹ tn Heb “and behold.”

[13:43]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like appearance of disease of skin of flesh.”

[13:44]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps translate, “His infection [is] on his head,” as a separate independent sentence (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV). There is no causal expression in the Hebrew text connecting these two clauses, but the logical relationship between them seems to be causal.