Leviticus 13:40 Commentary - Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(40) And the man whose hair is fallen off—Better, And if a man loseth the hair of his head. The sixth and last case, discussed in Lev. 13:40-44, is leprosy either at the back or in the front of the head. Though baldness in itself was regarded as a disgrace, and often looked upon as a Divine punishment (2Ki. 2:23; Isa. 3:17; Jer. 48:37), yet the simple fact of the mere falling of the hair is not to be taken as a sign of leprosy.

He is bald; yet is he clean.—Better, if he is backhead bald, he is clean. The baldness mentioned in the first part of the verse in general terms is now more minutely specified as consisting of two kinds of baldness.

Lev. 13:41-42 distinctly show that the word (kçrçach), here translated simply “bald” in the Authorised Version, denotes a person who has lost hair from the crown of his head downwards towards the channel of his neck, as the administrators of the law during the second Temple rightly define it, in contradistinction to the fore baldness which immediately follows.