| 41. Linguistic Exegesis The Hebrew text opens with the protasis marker veim {וְאִם | wə-’im} ‘and if’, introducing a first-class conditional clause. The locative phrase mip’ēat panav {מִפְּאַת פָּנָיו | mi-pə-’aṯ pā-nāv} ‘from the edge of his face’ specifies the affected region. The niphal imperfect verb yimaret {יִמָּרֵט | yim·mārēṭ} ‘is made bald’ governs the direct object rosho {רֹאשׁוֹ | rō·šô} ‘his head’, which is then characterized by the noun gibbeach {גִּבֵּחַ | gib·bēaḥ} ‘bald forehead’ serving as a predicate complement. In the apodosis, the pronoun hu {הוּא | hūʾ} ‘he’ is repeated for emphasis, followed by the adjective tahor {טָהוֹר | ṭā·hōr} ‘clean’ to denote his ritual status, and a final resumptive hu reinforces the outcome. This antithetic structure contrasts the physical condition with the resulting legal verdict. |