Bible Strands
Leviticus 13:40
Now if a man loses his hair and is bald, he is still clean.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Moses to the priests and Israelite community to establish diagnostic criteria for physical conditions. The directive addresses a specific moment in the ritual examination process where hair loss is evaluated for ceremonial status.
The words — יִמָּרֵט (yi.ma.Ret) means it will become bare, and טָהוֹר (ta.Hor) declares the person ritually pure. These terms anchor the verdict in observable physical change rather than moral or spiritual failure.
The thread — The same verdict appears in Leviticus 13:41 regarding receding hairlines, while Galatians 4:13 and 2 Kings 2:23 mention physical conditions or hair loss in narrative contexts. These passages trace how the biblical text consistently separates natural bodily states from ritual defilement.
Why it lands — The text commands readers to distinguish natural physical conditions from ceremonial uncleanness. It requires acknowledging that not every bodily change carries ritual or moral weight.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean.
Cross-references
- Galatians 4:13 You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.
- Leviticus 13:41 Or if his hairline recedes and he is bald on his forehead, he is still clean.
- 2 Kings 2:23 From there, Elisha went up to Bethel, and as he was walking up the road, a group of boys came out of the city and jeered at him, chanting, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!”
- Song of Solomon 5:11 His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.
- Isaiah 15:2 Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.
- Amos 8:10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.
- Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
- Romans 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
- Romans 8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.