“Now if a man loses the hair of his head, he is only bald; he is clean.
Parallel translations
- WEB “If a man’s hair has fallen from his head, he is bald. He is clean.
- KJV And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean.
- BSB Now if a man loses his hair and is bald, he is still clean.
- NKJV “As for the man whose hair has fallen from his head, he is bald, but he is clean.
- NLT “If a man loses his hair and his head becomes bald, he is still ceremonially clean.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A man who loses the hair of his head is simply bald and clean. Ordinary baldness is no cause for uncleanness.
Overview
If a man's hair falls from his head, he is bald, and he is clean. The law explicitly assures that common hair loss carries no ritual defilement. This gracious clarification frees God's people from needless fear, distinguishing natural conditions from genuine disease.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Gal 4:13but you know that because of weakness of the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time.
- Song 5:11His head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, black as a raven.
- Isa 15:2They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.
- Rom 6:12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
- 2 Kgs 2:23He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldy!”
- Lev 13:41If his hair has fallen off from the front part of his head, he is forehead bald. He is clean.
- Rom 6:19I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
- Rom 8:10If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
- Amos 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 13:40 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.