Whether [it be] in the warp, or woof, of linen, or of
woollen
When these are woven and mixed together, it seems difficult, if not impossible, to judge whether the plague of leprosy was in the one or in the other; one would think it should be unavoidably in both; wherefore Castalio renders the words, whether "in the outer part of it, or in the inner"; in the outside or inside, or what we call the right side or the wrong side of the cloth: but to me it seems that the warp and woof, whether of linen or woollen, are here distinguished not only from garments made of them, but from the cloth itself, of which they are made, and even to be considered before they are wrought together in the loom; and, according to the Jews, when upon the spindle F13:
whether in a skin, or anything made of skin;
that is, whether in unwrought skin, which is not made up in anything, or in anything that is made of skins, as tents, bottles but skins of fishes, according to the Jewish traditions, are excepted; for so they say F14, sea skins, i.e. skins of fishes, are not defiled by plagues (of leprosy); for which the commentators F15 give this reason, that as wool and linen are of things which grow out of the earth, so must the skins be; that is, of such animals as live by grass, that springs out of the earth; but if anything was joined unto them, which grew out of the earth, though but a thread, that received uncleanness, it was defiled.