Leviticus 13:39

“Then the priest shall look, etc.] Upon the man or woman that has these spots, and upon the spots themselves, and examine them of what kind they are: and, behold, [if] the bright spots in the skin of their flesh [be] darkish white; their whiteness is not strong, as Jarchi observes; but dusky and obscure, or “contracted” f450; small white spots, not large and spreading: it [is] a freckled spot [that] grows in the skin; a kind of morphew, which the above writer describes as a sort of whiteness which appears in the flesh of a ruddy man: he [is] clean; from leprosy; this is observed, lest a person that is freckled and has a morphew should be mistaken for a leprous person; as every man that has…”

“Freckled spot - If Leviticus 13:12 refers to the Lepra commonis, the Hebrew בהק bôhaq here may denote some kind of eczema, a skin disease of a somewhat similar external character. Leviticus 13:38, Leviticus 13:39 would seem more in their natural place between Leviticus 13:17-18. return to 'Top of Page'”

“If the spots be darkish white - Or, contracted, or confined to the place where they are, and white. Leviticus 13:42”

“if the bright: Ecc 7:20; Rom 7:22-25; Jam 3:2 a freckled spot: The word bohak, from the Syriac behak, to be white, or shining, here rendered "a freckled spot," is used by the Arabs to denote a kind of leprosy, of which Niebuhr says, "Bohak is neither contagious nor dangerous. A black boy at Mocha, who was affected with this eruption, had here and there upon his body white spots. We were told that the use of sulphur had relieved this boy for a time, but had not entirely removed the disease." He adds subsequently from Forskal's papers, "The Arabs call a sort of leprosy, in which some little spots shew themselves here and there on the body, behaq; and it is without doubt the same as is named…”