Laws about Skin Diseases
(Numbers 5:1–4)

1And YHWH spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2“When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, or a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes a plague of leprosy† on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests.

3And the priest shall examine the plague on the skin of the body. And if the hair on the plague has turned white and the plague is deeper than the skin of his body, it is a plague of leprosy; and the priest shall examine him and pronounce him unclean.

4But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and in sight is not deeper than the skin, and its hair has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one with the plague seven days. 5And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day, and behold, if the plague is unchanged in his eyes and the plague has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him a second seven days. 6And the priest shall examine him on the second seventh day, and behold, if the plague has faded and the plague has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean.

7But if the scab spreads at all over the skin after he has been seen by the priest for his cleansing, then he shall be seen a second time by the priest. 8And if the priest sees that indeed the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is leprosy.

9When a plague is leprous on a man, then he shall be brought to the priest. 10And the priest shall examine him, and if indeed the swelling is white on the skin, and it has turned the hair white, and there is a spot of raw flesh in the swelling, 11it is an old leprosy on the skin of his body, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He shall not isolate him, for he is unclean.

12And if leprosy breaks out at all in the skin and the leprosy covers all the skin of the one with the plague, from his head and to his foot, to all that appears to the eye of the priest, 13then the priest shall consider, and behold, if the leprosy has covered all his body, then the one with the plague he shall pronounce clean; it has all turned white; he is clean.

14And on the day of the appearing of raw flesh on him, he shall be unclean. 15And the priest shall examine the raw flesh and pronounce him unclean, for the raw flesh is unclean; it is leprosy. 16Or if the raw flesh turns again and changes to white, then he shall come to the priest, 17and the priest shall examine him, and behold, if the plague has turned to white, then the priest shall pronounce clean the one with the plague; he is clean.

18And when the flesh develops a boil in the skin and it has healed, 19and there comes in the place of the boil a white swelling, or a reddish-white bright spot, then it shall be shown to the priest. 20And if the priest sees it and behold, the appearance is deeper than the skin and its hair has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a plague of leprosy that has broken out in the boil.

21But if the priest examines it and behold, there are not white hairs in it, and it is not deeper than the skin, and it has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days. 22And if it spreads at all over the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a plague. 23But if the bright spot stays in one place and has not spread, it is the scar of the boil; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

24Or if the body receives a burn by fire on its skin and the raw flesh of the burn becomes a reddish-white bright spot, or white, 25then the priest shall examine it, and behold, if the hair has turned white in the bright spot and it appears deeper than the skin, it is leprosy. It has broken out in the burning, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a plague of leprosy.

26But if the priest examines it, and indeed there are not white hairs in the bright spot, and it is not deeper than the skin, and it has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days. 27And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day, and if it has spread at all over the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a plague of leprosy. 28But if the bright spot stays in one place and has not spread on the skin, and it has faded, it is a swelling from the burn; and the priest shall pronounce him clean, for it is the scar from the burn.

29And if a man or woman has a plague on him on the head or the beard, 30then the priest shall examine the plague, and behold, if the appearance of it is deeper than the skin, and there is in it thin yellow hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a scale—it is a leprosy of the head or of the beard.

31But if the priest examines the plague of the scale, and behold, the appearance of it is not deeper than the skin, and black hair is not in it, then the priest shall isolate him who has the plague of the scale seven days. 32And the priest shall examine the plague on the seventh day, and behold, if the scale has not spread, and there is not yellow hair in it, and the appearance of the scale is not deeper than the skin, 33then he shall shave himself, and the scale he shall not shave. And the priest shall isolate the one who has the scale a second seven days. 34And the priest shall examine the scale on the seventh day, and if indeed the scale has not spread over the skin and the appearance of it is not deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean, and He shall wash his clothes and be clean.

35But if the scale spreads at all over the skin after his cleansing, 36then the priest shall examine him, and behold, if the scale has spread over the skin, the priest need not seek for yellow hair; he is unclean.

37But if the scale appears to be at a standstill and black hair has grown up in it, the scale has healed; he is clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

38And if a man or a woman has on the skin of the body bright spots—white bright spots— 39then the priest shall look, and if indeed on the skin of the body are dull white bright spots, it is a harmless rash that grows on the skin; he is clean.

40And when a man’s head is polished, he is bald; he is clean. 41And if from the corner of his face his forehead is polished, he is bald on the forehead; he is clean. 42And if there is on the bald head or on the bald forehead a reddish white plague, it is leprosy breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead. 43And the priest shall examine it, and behold, if the swelling of the plague is reddish white on his bald head or on his bald forehead, as the appearance of leprosy on the skin of the body, 44he is a leprous man; he is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is on his head.

45And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be torn, and his head shall be uncovered,† and he shall cover his mustache. And he must cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46All the days he has the plague he shall be unclean; he is unclean. And he shall dwell alone; his dwelling is outside the camp.

Laws about Mildew

47And if there is a garment that has a plague of leprosy† in it—a woolen garment or a linen garment— 48or in the warp or in the woof of linen or of wool, whether in leather or in anything made of leather, 49and if the plague is greenish or reddish-white in the garment or in the leather, whether in the warp or in the woof or in any article of leather, it is a plague of leprosy, and it shall be shown to the priest. 50And the priest shall examine the plague and isolate the plague seven days.

51And he shall examine the plague on the seventh day. If the plague has spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof or in the leather or in anything made of leather, then the plague is a harmful leprosy; it is unclean. 52And he shall burn the garment or the warp or the woof in wool or in linen or any article of leather that the plague is in it, for it is a harmful leprosy. In the fire it shall be burned.

53But if the priest examines it and behold, the plague has not spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof or in anything made of leather, 54then the priest shall command that they wash that in which is the plague, and he shall isolate it a second seven days. 55And the priest shall examine the plague after it has been washed, and if indeed the plague has not changed its color and the plague has not spread, it is unclean, and you shall burn it in the fire; it is a rot in its back part or in its front part.

56And if the priest examines it and behold, the plague has faded after washing it, then he shall tear it out of the garment or out of the leather or out of the warp or out of the woof. 57And if again it appears in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof or in any article of leather, it is a spreading plague; you shall burn in the fire that in which the plague is.

58And if the garment, either the warp or the woof or any article of leather that you wash, if the plague has disappeared from it, then it shall be washed a second time, and it shall be clean.

59This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of wool or of linen, either of the warp or of the woof or any article of leather, to pronounce it clean or to pronounce it unclean.”

Footnotes:

2 Forms of the Hebrew tzaraath, traditionally translated as leprosy, were used for various skin diseases; here and throughout verses 3–46.
45 Or his hair shall not be unkempt
47 Forms of the Hebrew tzaraath, traditionally translated as leprosy regarding skin diseases, are translated as mildew regarding blemishes on garments, utensils, or buildings; here and throughout the remainder of this chapter.