A hunchback: a person with an abnormal bump on the back or shoulder.

A dwarf: the Hebrew adjective indicates something very thin or small (compare 13.30), and it usually has a negative connotation. It may be understood here either as an abnormally short person (dwarf) or as a person who is abnormally thin and sickly (New American Bible “weakly”). New English Bible has connected it with the eye problem which follows and has thus translated “a film over his eye.” But this is not recommended. Most versions adopt the meaning dwarf.

A defect in his sight: literally “a spot (or, defect) in his eye.” Here again we are dealing with a word that is found only here in all the Old Testament, so we cannot be certain of its meaning. Probably the whole expression is to be taken as a general reference to any kind of eye disease.

An itching disease: the Hebrew text actually has two words for “festering or running sores” (New International Version). Probably the two taken together are to be understood as referring to various kinds of skin diseases, or skin diseases in general.

Crushed testicles: this same defect prevented the ordinary Israelite from public worship (Deut 23.1). New American Bible translates “hernia,” and both New Jerusalem Bible and Good News Translation render it more dynamically and perhaps inaccurately as “eunuch.” However, to translate the idea into many languages, it will be necessary to say something very much like a more literal rendering of the text, “someone whose testicles have been damaged.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .