Clivedurdle

When Moses meets God several interesting things are described in different encounters.

His hand turns leprous, his face shines, he is utterly exhausted, someone slow of speech becomes eloquent.

I am of the opinion that Moses was made up by the Rivers of Babylon (Bible Unearthed) but what might have been going on in the authors' minds?

Were they using known illnesses as examples?

Might there have been a pile of uranium somewhere that someone sat on?

mens_sana

I don't remember the context of the "leprous." The latter three could be aspects of a charismatic experience — leaving aside who had the experience.

Clivedurdle

Exodus 4:6 >>
New American Standard Bible (©1995)
The LORD furthermore said to him, "Now put your hand into your bosom." So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.

Roger Pearse

Something similar happens at the roadside every time a traffic policeman pulls someone over...

Perhaps this shows that all of us are sitting on piles of uranium? (Must hurt, if so)

All the best,

Roger Pearse

mens_sana

Aha! Thank you. It looks like an exhibition of the deity's power, for both disease and the cure of disease were of divine origin.

Pataphysician

I would say the translation is not quite accurate, the word can mean any change that effects the skin, it is not synonymous with the modern disease leprosy. So any significant change in the skin would be described thus, also if you read the LXX, they do not say diseased or anything like that.

So I would translate this as "behold the skin of his hands changed to be like snow" though I'm not sure if they are just refering to color, or temprature.

Interestingly though, there is a disease that would make your hands go suddenly white, when you raise them above your head, it's called Thoracic outlet syndrome, and the white hands is caused by compression on the subclavian artery.