the priest shall examine them, and if the spots are dull white, it is a harmless rash that has broken out on the skin; the person is clean.
We have here, I. Provisos that neither a freckled skin nor a bald head should be mistaken for a leprosy, Lev 13:38-41. Every deformity must not forthwith be made a ceremonial defilement. Elisha was jeered for his bald head (Kg2 2:23); but it was the children of Bethel, that knew not the judgments of their God, who turned it to his reproach. II.
Commenting on Leviticus 13:38-46
And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head towards his face,.... That is, from the crown of his head towards his forehead and temples, the fore part of his head; and so the Misnic doctors distinguish baldness, which is from the crown of the head descending behind to the channel of the neck; and that here mentioned, which is...
Lev 13:38-39 Harmless leprosy. - This broke out upon the skin of the body in בּהרת plaits, “white rings.” If these were dull or a pale white, it was the harmless bohak, ἀλφός (lxx), which did not defile, and which even the Arabs, who still call it bahak, consider harmless.
Commenting on Leviticus 13:38-39