| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the vav-conjunctive uvasar {וּבָשָׂ֕ר | ū-bā-ṣār} ‘flesh’, introducing a new legal scenario. The conjunction ki {כִּי | kî} ‘when’ marks a temporal-conditional clause, followed by yihyeh {יִהְיֶה | yiḥ-yēh} ‘it will be’, setting the expectation of an occurrence. The prepositional sequence bo {בּוֹ | bô} ‘in him’ + b'oro {בְעֹרוֹ | bə-ʻō-rô} ‘in his skin’ precisely locates the ailment. The noun shekhin {שְׁחִין | šĕ-ḥîn} ‘boil’ is then the subject of the following niphal perfect venirpa {וְנִרְפָּא | wə-nir-pāʼ} ‘is healed’, indicating completed recovery. The paired vav clauses form a protasis-apodosis structure characteristic of Hebrew conditional syntax, and the word order reflects cause and result in the law of purification. |