## Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria

###### Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 15:1
[Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 15:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Midrash%20Tanchuma%20Buber/s/Tazria/r/15:1)

[ד"א] אדם כי יהיה בעור בשרו. על מה הנגעים באים על הזנות, וכן אתה מוצא בירושלים לפי שהיו שטופין בזנות לקו בצרעת, מה כתיב שם ויאמר ' יען כי גבהו וגו' (ישעיה ג טז), ואומר ושיפח ה' (את) קדקד בנות ציון (שם שם יז), [אין ספח אלא צרעת שנאמר שאת או ספחת (ויקרא יג ב)], ואומר ולשאת ולספחת (שם יד נו).

**Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension; trans. by John T. Townsend, 1989.:**
[Another interpretation] (of Lev. 13:2): WHEN ANYONE HAS ON THE SKIN OF HIS FLESH A SWELLING OR A SORE OR A BRIGHT SPOT . Why do the plagues come?⁶⁷., Lev. 4:11; cf. Lev. R. 17:3. Because of harlotry. And so you find in Jerusalem, that because they were absorbed in harlotry, they were afflicted with leprosy. What is written there (in Is. 3:16)? MOREOVER, THE LORD SAID: BECAUSE THE DAUGHTERS OF ZION ARE HAUGHTY, AND WALK WITH EXTENDED NECK AND ROVING EYES …. Then it says (in vs. 17): THEREFORE THE LORD WILL SMITE WITH SORES (*SPH*) THE SCALPS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ZION. [SMITE WITH SORES (*SPH*)⁶⁸ by rendering the *S* sound with a *samekh* in place of the biblical *sin*. must mean "with leprosy," since it is stated (with reference to leprosy in Lev. 13:2): A SWELLING OR A SORE (rt.: *SPH*).]⁶⁹ It also says (in Lev. 14:56): FOR A SWELLING AND FOR A SORE.

footnotes:
⁶⁷ Tanh
⁶⁸ The Buber text has misspelled SPH
⁶⁹ Here the S represents a samekh.