Treatment of Tzaraath of the Skin

(Leviticus 13:1 - 13:46)
Jehovah said this to Moses and Aaron:
"When anyone has on his skin a swelling, an eruption, or a shiny spot that might be a symptom of tzaraath, that person should be brought to see Aaron or any of his successors as priests.  The priest should examine the patient's skin, and if body hair in the affected area has turned white and the disease seems more than skin deep, then it is tzaraath.  After the examination, the priest should declare the person ritually impure.   However, if the skin is only discolored, the body hair in the area has not turned white, and the disease seems to have affected only the surface of the skin, then the priest should  confine the person to his home for 7 days.  If, after examining him on the seventh day, the priest finds that the sore is unchanged and has not spread, then the priest should have him confined for another 7 days.  On the seventh day the priest should make another examination and, finding the sore has faded and has not spread, the priest may declare the patient ritually pure -- it was only a skin rash.  The patient's clothes should be washed and, after that, he will be ritually pure.  If, after the examination by the priest and the declaration that he is ritually pure, running sores reappear, the patient must return to the priest for another examination.  If the priest concludes that the sores have spread, he will pronounce the patient ritually impure -- it is indeed a case of tzaraath.

"When anyone is afflicted with tzaraath, he should be brought before a priest.  The priest will make an examination, and, if the skin is white and swelling, if the body hair around it has turned white, and if there is an open sore on the skin, then it is tzaraath, and the priest should declare the person ritually impure.  In such cases, a confinement is unnecessary since it is obvious the person is infected with tzaraath.  In the case of the disease affecting the skin of the entire body, from head to toe, the priest must examine the patient and finding, as far as he can tell, that the disease has covered his entire body, he may declare him ritually pure, for the skin is uniformly white.  If, however, open sores appear, then the infected person must be declared ritually impure.  The priest must make this declaration as soon as sores are detected, for sores are a symptom of tzaraath.  If the sores heal and the area turns white again like the rest of the skin, then the infected person must return to the priest for another examination.  If he finds the affected areas have indeed turned white, then he may declare the patient ritually pure -- and he will thus be pure.

"When a person has a boil on the skin and after it has healed, there is, in the same area, a whitish swelling or a pink spot, it should be shown to the priest, who should make an examination.  If the infection seems more than skin deep and the body hair in the area has turned white, then the priest should declare the person ritually impure, for tzaraath has broken out where the boil was.  But if the priest exams it and finds that the hair in the area is not white, that the infection seems no deeper than the skin and is in the process of healing, then he should confine the patient for 7 days.  If, during this time, the skin infection spreads, the priest should declare the patient ritually impure, for it is tzaraath.  If, on the other hand, the infection is unchanged and has not spread, it is merely a scar from the boil, and the priest should declare the person pure.

"If someone has a burn on his body and white or pink spot appears in the sores of the burn, then a priest should examine it.  If he finds that body hair in the area has turned white and that the infection seems more than skin deep, then tzaraath has broken out in the burn.  The priest must pronounce the person ritually impure, for this is tzaraath.  But if when the priest examines it, body hair in the area has not turned white and the infection does not seem more than skin deep, then he should confine the patient to his home for 7 days.  The priest should examine him on the seventh day, and if the infection has spread, he should declare the patient ritually impure, for he is afflicted with tzaraath.  But if the spot is unchanged, has not spread, but is healing, then it is merely the swelling from the burn, the priest should pronounce him pure, for it is only a burn scar.

"If a man or woman has a sore on the head or in the beard, the priest should examine it.  If it seems to be more than skin deep and there is fine, yellow hair in it, then the priest must declare the person ritually impure.  It is tzaraath of the head or beard.  If the priest examines the infection and it appears to be only skin deep, with no black hair in it, the priest should confine the person with the sore for 7 days.  On the seventh day the priest should examine the sore, and if it has not spread, if there is no yellow hair in it and it does not seem to be more than skin deep, then the man may shave around the sore, leaving the sore unshaven.  The priest should confine the person with the sore for another 7 days.  On the seventh day the priest should reexamine the sore, and if it has not spread and seems no more than skin deep, then he should pronounce the person ritually pure.  The affected person should then wash his clothes, and he will then be purified.  However, if the sore begins to spread after the person has been declared pure, then the priest must conduct another examination.  If he finds that the sore has indeed spread, he need not search for yellow hair; the infected person is ritually impure.  But if the color of the sore has not changed and black hair has grown in it, the sore has healed; the person is thus ritually pure, and the priest should declare him so.

"If a man or a woman has white spots on their skin, a priest should examine them.  If they are dull, pale white, it is only a skin rash; the person remains pure.

"If a man loses the hair on his head, he may be bald, but he remains ritually pure.  If he loses hair from his temples, he has a receding hairline, but he remains pure.  However, if he has a pink sore on his pate or crown, it is tzaraath breaking out there.  The priest should examine him, and if the sore on the pate or crown is pink, resembling an outbreak of tzaraath, then the man is diseased and ritually impure.  Because of the sore on his head the priest must declare him to be impure.

"Those afflicted with tzaraath must wear ragged clothes and leave their hair unkempt.  They must cover the lower part of their faces, and cry out, "Impure! Impure!"  As long as they have the disease, they will remain ritually impure.  And they must live by themselves in a place outside of camp."

Notes
1.  Sometimes the best translation is not to translate, and I have stuck with the original Hebrew word tzaraath (spelled variously).  It refers to a range of skin diseases and afflictions -- but not only that, the term is also used to refer to mold and mildew that may appear on clothing or in dwellings.  It is traditionally translated as leprosy, but this is patently inaccurate.  For one thing, clothes and houses don't become afflicted with leprosy, and most of the skin complaints here described do not suggest leprosy or its symptoms at all.  (Most sound like psoriasis.)  Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, was, in fact, rare, in Old Testament times, even if, by the time of Jesus, it was common and a serious health problem.  It must be remembered that tzaraath is not being dealt with in a medical context.  The only issue here is whether a person is ritually pure or impure.  Serious breaking of the skin is sufficient to render one impure.  And any skin disease sufficient to render one ritually impure is termed tzaraath.

2.  It must be noted that many ancient historians believed that the Israelites led by Moses were expelled from Egypt because they were diseased.  Perhaps there was a widespread occurrence of skin diseases among them, occasioning this emphasis on tzaraath.  

3.  The confinement of those suspected of having tzaraath is merely to determine the progression of the infection.  It is not a quarantine, as we might imagine, to protect others from a contagious disease.  The ancients, after all, knew nothing about the origin or transmission of disease.  (Lest we be too smug in our knowledge, we should remember that the germ theory was not universally accepted until the end of the 19th Century.)  The isolation of those suffering from tzaraath, the popular conception of the "leper," was necessitated since those who are more than temporarily impure cannot take an active part in Hebrew society.

4.  The reference to shaving is interesting.  One imagines the ancient Hebrews as being uniformly bearded, since shaving the beard will be prohibited (later in Leviticus).  To shave they probably would have used a copper razor, which was developed as early as 3000 B.C.