neteq

The lexica converge on the sense. BDB glosses נֶתֶק as a scab or eruption on the head or beard; HALOT renders it scurf; DCH likewise restricts it to a scaly patch of hair-bearing scalp or beard. All three derive it from the root נתק, to tear away or pull off, so the noun designates the place where hair has come out. Milgrom (Leviticus 1-16, AB 3, 787-789) translates scall and sets out the diagnostic protocol: thin yellow hair within the lesion yields immediate impurity (Lev 13:30), while absence of spread across two seven-day confinements yields purity (13:32-34); the prohibition against shaving the lesion itself (13:33) preserves its margin so that any later encroachment is measurable, and renewed spread after a verdict of purity reverses it (13:35-36). Regrowth of black hair is the sign of healing (13:37). Formally the term is a subcategory: 13:31 speaks of the נֶגַע of the נֶתֶק, and 13:30 classifies the condition as צָרַעַת of the head or beard, while the colophon at 14:54 lists it as a distinct named case within the law. The Septuagint renders it θραῦσμα (a break or fracture) rather than λέπρα, though it uses λέπρα for the צָרַעַת clause in the same verse, so the Greek tradition already treated the scall as a separately named case inside the larger category. On medical identification, Hulse (PEQ 107 [1975]: 87-105) argues for favus or another tinea capitis, matching the circular scaling, the alopecia, and the yellowish hair; Milgrom follows this as probable. Baden and Moss (JBL 130/4 [2011]: 643-662) resist retrospective diagnosis of the Leviticus 13 terminology on the grounds that the text furnishes visual criteria for a ritual verdict rather than a pathology. Wright (The Disposal of Impurity, SBLDS 101) and Milgrom situate the whole complex in the Priestly concern with visible bodily decay; no text in the legislation attributes the condition to sin.