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Hebrew verb · H6879

צָרַע

tsaratsaw-rah'

be leprous

20 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key

Concordance spelling: tsâraʻ

Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H6879is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.

  • 6 of 39
    Old Testament books
  • 19
    spellings

The definition in full

Strong's key (1890) · H6879

to scourge, i.e. (intransitive and figurative) to be stricken with leprosy

The King James renders it: leper, leprous.

James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.

Summary

tsara is rendered "be leprous". It stands 20 times in the Hebrew text, across six books.

  • Six of the uses stand in 2 Kings, more than in any other book.
  • Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Exodus 4:6Furthermore, the LORD said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, white as snow.
  • The Greek text spells it nineteen different ways.

The first use

Furthermore, the LORD said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, white as snow.

Exodus 4:6מְצֹרַ֥עַת

The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.

Where the word stands

Six of the word's twenty uses are in 2 Kings.

The other 33 Old Testament books never use the word.

What the word means

Each meaning, and the words it is translated by

How the Greek text is glossed, word by word

  • leprous7
  • having a skin disease4
  • the having a skin disease2
  • and has a skin disease1
  • and the has a serious skin disease1
  • has a serious skin disease1
  • has a skin disease1
  • having a serious skin disease1
  • the had a serious skin disease1
  • the has a serious skin disease1

The words built on the same word-part

Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.

צָרַרtsararto confineUses54
צָרַעַתtsaraathleprosyUses35
צָרַףtsaraphto refineUses33
צָרַחtsarachto cryUses2
צָרַבtsarabto burnUses1

The words it stands beside

All 20, in canonical order

Every use, in order

Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.

19 spellings and their grammar

STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.

How it is spelled

  • מְצֹרָע֙2
  • הַמְּצֹרָ֔ע1
  • הַמְּצֹרָֽע׃1
  • הַֽמְצֹרָעִ֨ים1
  • הַצָּרֽוּעַ׃1
  • וְהַצָּר֜וּעַ1
  • וּמְצֹרָ֞ע1
  • מְצוֹרָ֣ע1
  • מְצֹרָ֥ע1
  • מְצֹרָ֔ע1
  • מְצֹרָ֣ע׀1
  • מְצֹרָֽע׃1

and 7 more spellings in the ledger below.

The grammar of each form

  • verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singular7HVPsmsa
  • verb · simple (qal), passive participle · masculine singular3HVqsmsa
  • the definite article (“the”) + verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singular2HTd/VPsmsa
  • verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)2HVPsfsc
  • conjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + verb · simple (qal), passive participle · masculine singular1HC/Td/Vqsmsa
  • conjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singular1HC/VPsmsa
  • the definite article (“the”) + verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine plural1HTd/VPsmpa
  • the definite article (“the”) + verb · simple (qal), passive participle · masculine singular1HTd/Vqsmsa
  • verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · feminine singular1HVPsfsa
  • verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine plural1HVPsmpa

Exodus

one use
  • Furthermore, the LORD said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, white as snow.

    Exodus 4:6

    • מְצֹרַ֥עַתmetzoraatverb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: leprous

Leviticus

five uses
  • the man is diseased; he is unclean. The priest must pronounce him unclean because of the infection on his head.

    Leviticus 13:44

    • צָר֥וּעַtzarua'verb · simple (qal), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: has a serious skin disease
  • A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’

    Leviticus 13:45

    • וְהַצָּר֜וּעַvehatzarua'conjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + verb · simple (qal), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: and the has a serious skin disease
  • “This is the law for the one afflicted with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing, when he is brought to the priest.

    Leviticus 14:2

    • הַמְּצֹרָ֔עhametzora'the definite article (“the”) + verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: the has a serious skin disease
  • The priest is to go outside the camp to examine him, and if the skin disease of the afflicted person has healed,

    Leviticus 14:3

    • הַצָּרֽוּעַ׃hatzarua'the definite article (“the”) + verb · simple (qal), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: the had a serious skin disease
  • If a descendant of Aaron has a skin disease or a discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything defiled by a corpse or by a man who has an emission of semen,

    Leviticus 22:4

    • צָר֙וּעַ֙tzarua'verb · simple (qal), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: having a serious skin disease

Numbers

three uses
  • “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.

    Numbers 5:2

    • צָר֖וּעַtzarua'verb · simple (qal), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: has a skin disease
  • As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous,

    Numbers 12:10

    • מְצֹרַ֣עַתmetzoraatverb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: leprous
    • מְצֹרָֽעַת׃metzoraatverb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · feminine singulartagged: leprous

2 Samuel

one use
  • May it whirl over the heads of Joab and the entire house of his father, and may the house of Joab never be without one having a discharge or skin disease, or one who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or lacks food.”

    2 Samuel 3:29

    • וּמְצֹרָ֞עumetzora'conjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: and has a skin disease

2 Kings

six uses
  • Now Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded, for through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. And he was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

    2 Kings 5:1

    • מְצֹרָֽע׃metzora'verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: having a skin disease
  • But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out, stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the spot to cure my leprosy.

    2 Kings 5:11

    • הַמְּצֹרָֽע׃hametzora'the definite article (“the”) + verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: the having a skin disease
  • Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and your descendants forever!” And as Gehazi left his presence, he was leprous—as white as snow.

    2 Kings 5:27

    • מְצֹרָ֥עmetzora'verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: having a skin disease
  • Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate, and they said to one another, “Why just sit here until we die?

    2 Kings 7:3

    • מְצֹרָעִ֖יםmetzoraimverb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine pluraltagged: having a skin disease
  • When the lepers reached the edge of the camp, they went into a tent to eat and drink. Then they carried off the silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid them. On returning, they entered another tent, carried off some items from there, and hid them.

    2 Kings 7:8

    • הַֽמְצֹרָעִ֨יםhamtzoraimthe definite article (“the”) + verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine pluraltagged: the having a skin disease
  • And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

    2 Kings 15:5

    • מְצֹרָע֙metzora'verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: having a skin disease

2 Chronicles

four uses
  • When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw his leprous forehead, they rushed him out. Indeed, he himself hurried to get out, because the LORD had afflicted him.

    2 Chronicles 26:20

    • מְצֹרָע֙metzora'verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: leprous
  • So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in isolation, leprous and cut off from the house of the LORD, while his son Jotham had charge of the royal palace to govern the people of the land.

    2 Chronicles 26:21

    • מְצֹרָ֣ע׀metzora'verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: leprous
    • מְצֹרָ֔עmetzora'verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: leprous
  • And Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in a field of burial that belonged to the kings; for the people said, “He was a leper.” And his son Jotham reigned in his place.

    2 Chronicles 26:23

    • מְצוֹרָ֣עmetzora'verb · intensive passive (pual), passive participle · masculine singulartagged: leprous

The letters

Where it leads

How the numbers are counted

Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.

Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.

The words it stands beside are the nouns, verbs and adjectives immediately before or after it, counted in every verse where the word stands. The article, the conjunctions and the prepositions are left out, because they stand beside every word.

The family is read from the lexicon by the stem the two words share, with the accents off, and a person or a place named on the stem is left out.

Hebrew and Greek text, word tagging and grammar: STEP Bible (www.STEPBible.org), Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0. Their grammar codes are written out in English here and shown as tagged beside each one.

Meaning and senses: STEP Bible TBESH gloss (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary key: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890, public domain). English verse text: Berean Standard Bible (public domain, 2023).

Revised 2026-09-05. Every cited work, the sources registry →