Leviticus 13:24

Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat reddish, or white;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is.—Rather, or if there is in the skin of the flesh. As a burn or inflammation arising from contact with pitch or hot water was adduced in Leviticus 13:18, the verse before us specifies a sore, pustule, or blister occasioned by “a burning of fire,” as the Margin of the Authorised Version rightly has it, and not a hot burning, as it is in the text. The ancient canons distinctly define this by “that which is burnt with a coal or with embers, whatsoever is from the force of actual fire, is the burning here meant,” in contradistinction to the burn or inflammation mentioned in Leviticus 13:18.

And the quick flesh that burneth.—Rather, and the sound flesh of the burning (see Leviticus 13:10), that is, the tender flesh which is renewed (after it has lost the purulent matter in it) and exhibits these symptoms.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:18-44 The priest is told what judgment to make, if there were any appearance of a leprosy in old sores; and such is the danger of those who having escaped the pollutions of the world are again entangled therein. Or, in a burn by accident, ver. 24. The burning of strife and contention often occasions the rising and breaking out of that corruption, which proves that men are unclean. Human life lies exposed to many grievances. With what troops of diseases are we beset on every side; and thy all entered by sin! If the constitution be healthy, and the body lively and easy, we are bound to glorify God with our bodies. Particular note was taken of the leprosy, if in the head. If the leprosy of sin has seized the head; if the judgment be corrupted, and wicked principles, which support wicked practices, are embraced, it is utter uncleanness, from which few are cleansed. Soundness in the faith keeps leprosy from the head.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The sense of this verse is: "Or if there be flesh of which the skin has been affected by severe inflammation, and the sore of the inflammation has become a glossy spot, somewhat reddish or white."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9-37. if the rising be white—This BRIGHT WHITE leprosy is the most malignant and inveterate of all the varieties the disease exhibits, and it was marked by the following distinctive signs: A glossy white and spreading scale, upon an elevated base, the elevation depressed in the middle, but without a change of color; the black hair on the patches participating in the whiteness, and the scaly patches themselves perpetually enlarging their boundary. Several of these characteristics, taken separately, belong to other blemishes of the skin as well; so that none of them was to be taken alone, and it was only when the whole of them concurred that the Jewish priest, in his capacity of physician, was to pronounce the disease a malignant leprosy. If it spread over the entire frame without producing any ulceration, it lost its contagious power by degrees; or, in other words, it ran through its course and exhausted itself. In that case, there being no longer any fear of further evil, either to the individual himself or to the community, the patient was declared clean by the priest, while the dry scales were yet upon him, and restored to society. If, on the contrary, the patches ulcerated and quick or fungous flesh sprang up in them, the purulent matter of which, if brought into contact with the skin of other persons, would be taken into the constitution by means of absorbent vessels, the priest was at once to pronounce it an inveterate leprosy. A temporary confinement was them declared to be totally unnecessary, and he was regarded as unclean for life [Dr. Good]. Other skin affections, which had a tendency to terminate in leprosy, though they were not decided symptoms when alone, were: "a boil" (Le 13:18-23); "a hot burning,"—that is, a fiery inflammation or carbuncle (Le 13:24-28); and "a dry scall" (Le 13:29-37), when the leprosy was distinguished by being deeper than the skin and the hair became thin and yellow.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A hot burning, Heb. a burning of fire, by the touch of any hot iron, or burning coals, which doth naturally and usually make an ulcer or sore in which the following spot is. Or white, i.e. or only white, without any mixture of red in it. This clause seems to overthrow that exposition of the Hebrew word adamdam which is given by a learned man, Leviticus 13:19, because this colour which is here said to be only white, is distinguished from that which is here called adamdam, which therefore must be some other colour than that of snow, which though very light or bright, yet is only white.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning,.... Or "a burning of fire" (r): it is asked, what is a burning? that which is burnt with a coal or with hot ashes; all that is from the force of fire is burning (s); that is, whatever sore, pustule, or blister, is occasioned by fire touching the part, or by anything heated by fire:

and the quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat reddish, or white; the Targum of Jonathan is, a white spot mixed with red, or only white; and so Aben Ezra interprets the last clause: this seems to set aside Bochart's interpretation of the word "adamdemeth", which we render "somewhat reddish", and be, very white, bright, and glittering since white is here opposed unto it; though it may be, the sense is, that the flesh burnt has a bright white spot in it, exceeding glittering; or however, at least, a white one: by the "quick flesh" that burneth, Gersom says, is meant the weak, the tender flesh which is renewed there, after it is healed from the purulent matter in it.

(r) "adustio ignis", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Termellius, Piscator. (s) Misn. Negaim, c. 9. sect. 1. & Maimon. in ib. c. 6. sect. 8.

Geneva Study Bible

Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the quick flesh that burneth have a {h} white bright spot, somewhat reddish, or white;

(h) If he has a white spot in the place where the burning was and was later healed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 24-28. - The method of discriminating between a leprous spot and the scar of a burn. If there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning. This rendering indicates that the authors of the Authorized Version thought a disease of the nature of a carbuncle to be meant; but it is better to take the words literally as they are translated in the margin, If there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a burning of fire; that is, a scar from a burn, The leprous spot and the scar are to be distinguished as in the previous case. An old nicer or burn is a more likely place for a leprous spot to appear than any part of the body which is sound, just as in the moral sphere sin fixes on some old wound of the soul to burst out in. Leviticus 13:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The fourth case (Leviticus 13:24-28): if there was a burnt place upon the skin of the flesh (מבות־אשׁ, a spot where he had burnt himself with fire, the scar of a burn), and the "life of the scar" - i.e., the skin growing or forming upon the scar (see Leviticus 13:10), - "becomes a whitish red, or white spot," i.e., if it formed itself into a bright swollen spot. This was to be treated exactly like the previous case. המּכוה שׂאת (Leviticus 13:28), rising of the scar of the burn, i.e., a rising of the flesh and skin growing out of the scar of the burn.