Hebrew word · H4556

מִסְפַּ֫חַת

mispachat

scab

A harmless skin eruption: a scab, scale, or rash. It is related to sappachat (13:2; 14:56), one of the three initial suspicious signs. The root s-p-ch probably means 'to attach, adhere', so possibly 'something stuck on the surface', a scab or scale. It occurs only in Lev 13:6–8.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

eruption, scab

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Leviticus 13:6

Range of meaning

A harmless skin eruption: a scab, scale, or rash. It is related to sappachat (13:2; 14:56), one of the three initial suspicious signs. The root s-p-ch probably means 'to attach, adhere', so possibly 'something stuck on the surface', a scab or scale. It occurs only in Lev 13:6–8.

Against the English

KJV/WEB/NASB 'scab', BSB/NIV 'rash', ESV 'eruption'. Any of these works. The point is the category, 'only a surface eruption', not a precise medical identification, which is uncertain.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint renders it σημασία (sēmasia), roughly 'a mark, a sign', the same word it uses for sappachat in 13:2. That shows the translators read it as a type of mark rather than a named disease.

Similar words

Where it appears

Leviticus · 3

  1. Leviticus 13:6 מִסְפַּ֣חַת [is] a skin rash

    The priest will examine him again on the seventh day, and if the sore has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is a rash. The person must wash his clothes and be clean.

    Here: A harmless surface eruption. The term appears only in this passage (vv.6–8). The priest classifies the mark as this and not as tsara'at.

  2. Leviticus 13:7 הַמִּסְפַּ֙חַת֙ the skin rash

    But if the rash spreads further on his skin after he has shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he must present himself again to the priest.

  3. Leviticus 13:8 הַמִּסְפַּ֖חַת the skin rash

    The priest will reexamine him, and if the rash has spread on the skin, the priest must pronounce him unclean; it is a skin disease.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.