Then the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard.

then the priest shall look on the plague; and, behold, if the appearance thereof be deeper than the skin, and there be in it yellow thin hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a scall, it is leprosy of the head or of the beard.

And if the place be lower than the other flesh, and the hair yellow, and thinner than usual: he shall declare them unclean, because it is the leprosy of the head and the beard;

and the priest look on the sore, and behold, it looketh deeper than the skin, and there is in it yellow thin hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a scall, the leprosy of the head or the beard.

Then the priest shall see the plague: and behold, if it is in sight deeper than the skin, and there is in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard.

then hath the priest seen the plague, and lo, its appearance is deeper than the skin, and in it a thin shining hair, and the priest hath pronounced him unclean; it is a scall, it is a leprosy of the head or of the beard.

Then the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scale, even a leprosy on the head or beard.

Then the priest is to see the diseased place: and if it seems to go deeper than the skin, and if there is thin yellow hair in it, then the priest will say that he is unclean: he has the mark of the leper's disease on his head or in the hair of his chin.

and if the place is certainly lower than the rest of the flesh, and the hair is golden, and thinner than usual, he shall declare them contaminated, because it is the leprosy of the head and the beard.

Tune inspiciet sacerdos plagam: et si superficies ejus profundior erit cute, et fuerit in ea pilus flavus et tenuis, immundum judicabit sacerdos: macula nigra est, lepra capitis aut barbae est.

Scall - As this is the name for another disease not allied to the leprosy, it would have been better to retain the original word נתק netheq. It is a true elephantiasis, and is recognized by modern writers under the name of the Fox mange.

Then the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it [be] in sight deeper than the skin; [and there be] in it a yellow thin (i) hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it [is] a dry scall, [even] a leprosy upon the head or beard.
(i) Which was not wont to be there, or else smaller than in any other part of the body.

Then the priest shall see the plague,.... The person on whom it is shall come or be brought unto him; and he shall look upon it and examine it:
and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin; which is always one sign of leprosy:
and there be in it a yellow thin hair; like the appearance of thin gold, as the Targum of Jonathan; for, as Ben Gersom says, its colour is the colour of gold; and it is called thin in this place, because short and soft, and not when it is long and small; and so it is said, scabs make unclean in two weeks, and by two signs, by thin yellow hair, and by spreading, by yellow hair, small, soft, and short (t): now this is to be understood, not of hair that is naturally of a yellow or gold colour, as is the hair of the head and beard of some persons, but of hair changed into this colour through the force of the disease; and so Jarchi interprets it, black hair turned yellow; in other parts of the body, hair turned white was a sign of leprosy, but here that which was turned yellow or golden coloured: Aben Ezra observes, that the colour expressed by this word is, in the Ishmaelitish or Arabic language, the next to the white colour:
then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; declare him a leper, and unfit for company, and order him to do and have done for him the things after expressed, as required in such a case:
it is a dry scall; or "wound", as the Septuagint version; "nethek", which is the word here used, Jarchi says, is the name of a plague that is in the place of hair, or where that grows; it has its name from plucking up; for there the hair is plucked away, as Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom note:
even a leprosy upon the head or beard; as the head is the seat of knowledge, and the beard a sign of manhood, and of a man's being arrived to years of discretion; when wisdom and prudence are expected in him; this sort of leprosy may be an emblem of errors in judgment, of false doctrines and heresies imbibed by persons, which eat as doth a canker, and are in themselves damnable, and bring ruin and destruction on teachers and hearers, unless recovered from them by the grace of God.
(t) Negaim, c. 10. sect. 1.

A yellow, thin hair - The leprosy in the body turned the hair white, in the head or beard it turned it yellow. And if a man's hair was yellow before, this might easily be distinguished from the rest, either by the thinness or smallness of it, or by its peculiar kind of yellow, for there are divers kinds of the same colour manifestly differing from one another.