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

1And YHWH spoke to Moses and to 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† in the skin of his flesh, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one from his sons, the priests.

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

4And if the bright spot is white in the skin of his flesh, and its appearance is not deeper than the skin, and its hair has not turned white, then the priest shall shut up the one with the plague seven days. 5And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day, and behold, if the plague has stood in his eyes, the plague has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up 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 in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and he shall be clean.

7And if the scab spreads at all in 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 the priest shall examine him, and behold, if the scab has spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is leprosy.

9When a plague is leprous in a man, then he shall be brought to the priest. 10And the priest shall examine him, and behold, if the swelling is white in the skin, and it has turned the hair white, and there is a spot of living flesh in the swelling, 11it is an old leprosy in the skin of his body, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He shall not shut him up, 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 feet, to all that appears to the eye of the priest, 13then the priest shall examine him, and behold, if the leprosy has covered all his flesh, then the one with the plague he shall pronounce clean; it has all turned white; he is clean.

14And in the day of the appearing of living flesh in him, he shall be unclean. 15And the priest shall examine the living flesh and pronounce him unclean, the living flesh is unclean; it is leprosy. 16Or if the living flesh turns back, and it is turned 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 has a boil in the skin and it is healed, 19and there is in the place of the boil a white swelling, or a reddish-white bright spot, then it shall be shown to the priest. 20And the priest shall examine him and behold, if its appearance is lower than the skin and its hair has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a plague of leprosy, it has broken out in the boil.

21And if the priest examines it and behold, there is not white hair in it, and it is not lower than the skin, and it has faded, then the priest shall shut him up seven days. 22And if it spreads at all in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a plague. 23And if the bright spot stands in its place, it has not spread, it is the scar of the boil; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

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

26And if the priest examines it, and behold, there is not white hair in the bright spot, and it is not lower than the skin, and it has faded, then the priest shall shut him up seven days. 27And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day, and if it has spread at all in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a plague of leprosy. 28And if the bright spot stands in its place, it has not spread in the skin, and it has faded, it is the swelling of the burn; and the priest shall pronounce him clean, for it is the scar of the burn.

29And if a man or woman has a plague in him in the head or in the beard, 30then the priest shall examine the plague, and behold, if its appearance is deeper than the skin, and in it is 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.

31And if the priest examines the plague of the scale, and behold, its appearance is not deeper than the skin, and black hair is not in it, then the priest shall shut up the one 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 shut up the one who has the scale a second seven days. 34And the priest shall examine the scale on the seventh day, and behold, if the scale has not spread in 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 he shall be clean.

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

37And if in his eyes the scale has stood, and black hair has grown up in it, the scale has been healed; he is clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

38And if a man or a woman has in the skin of their flesh bright spots—white bright spots— 39then the priest shall examine, and behold, if in the skin of their flesh are dull white bright spots, it is a harmless rash, it has broken out in the skin; he is clean.

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

45And the leper who has in him the plague, his clothes shall be torn, and his head shall be uncovered,† and he shall cover his mustache. And he shall call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46All the days that the plague is in him he shall be unclean; he is unclean. He shall dwell alone; his dwelling is outside of the camp.

Laws about Mildew

47And if there is a garment that has a plague of leprosy† in it—in a garment of wool or in a garment of linen— 48or in the warp or in the woof, for the linen and for the wool, or in skin or in any work of skin, 49and the plague is greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, or in the warp or in the woof, or in any article of skin, it is a plague of leprosy, and it shall be shown to the priest. 50And the priest shall examine the plague, and he shall shut up the plague seven days.

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

53And if the priest examines, and behold, the plague has not spread in the garment, or in the warp or in the woof, or in any article of skin, 54then the priest shall command, and they shall wash that in which is the plague, and he shall shut it up a second seven days. 55And the priest shall examine the plague after it has been washed, and behold, if the plague has not turned its eye, 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, and behold, the plague has faded after washing it, then he shall tear it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof. 57And if again it appears in the garment, or in the warp or in the woof, or in any article of skin, it is breaking out; you shall burn it in the fire, that in which the plague is.

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

59This is the law of the plague of leprosy of a garment of wool or of linen, or of the warp or of the woof, or any article of skin, 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.