And the Lord said furthermore unto him,.... Continued his discourse, and gave him another sign:
put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom; within his coat, under that part of the garment next to his breast:
and when he took it out, behold, his hand [was] leprous as snow; that is, white as snow, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, through the leprosy that was upon it; it was a leprosy of the white sort, and which is reckoned the worst and most difficult to be cured, see
Leviticus 13:3. It is highly probable that this gave rise to the story told by several Heathen writers, as Manetho m, Lysimachus n, Trogus o, and Tacitus p, that Moses and the Israelites were drove out of Egypt by the advice of an oracle, because they had the leprosy, itch, and other impure diseases upon them.
m Apud Joseph. contr. Apion. l. 1. c. 26. n Apud. ib. c. 34. o Justin e Trogo, l. 36. c. 2. p Hist. l. 5. c. 3.