| 42. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the conditional conjunction vekhi {וְכִי | wə·ḵî} ‘and if/when’, introducing a protasis that outlines a potential medical condition. The imperfect yihyeh {יִהְיֶה | yi·ḥyêh} ‘it will be’ conveys potential occurrence. Two parallel locative phrases—baqarachat {בַקָּרַחַת | baqqāraḥaṯ} ‘on the baldness’ and bagabbachat {בַגַּבַּחַת | baḡaḇḥaṯ} ‘on the frontal baldness’—specify the precise sites. The noun phrase nega‘ lavan adamdam {נֶגַע לָבָן אֲדַמְדָּם | negaʿ lāḇān ʾăḏamḏām} ‘white and reddish sore’ combines noun and color adjectives in diagnostic detail. The classification term tsara‘at {צָרַעַת | ṣāraʿāṯ} ‘leprosy’ is then named, followed by the active participle porachat {פֹּרַחַת | pȏraḥaṯ} ‘breaking out’, marking the eruption’s manifestation. The pronoun hi {הִוא | hîʾ} ‘it’ then identifies the condition, completed by two final locative phrases—beqarachto {בְּקָרַחְתּוֹ | bəqārāḥṯō} ‘in his baldness’ and begabbachto {בְגַבַּחְתּֽוֹ | bəgabbḥṯō} ‘in his frontal baldness’—thus framing the legal determination. In English, the adjective-noun order is reversed and a copula is supplied to meet syntactic requirements, while the conditional and locative structure is retained. |