blemish
mum denotes a defect or flaw, especially one that disqualifies a person or animal from approaching or being accepted.
The term most often marks a bodily defect in a person or animal, especially where that condition prevents approach to sacred service or acceptance of an offering. It also occurs for an injury requiring equivalent recompense and, in construct forms, for a fault associated with corrupt conduct or the reproach received by rebuking the wicked.
Senses in use
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Physical defect affecting persons or animals · dominant
The masculine singular absolute form identifies a condition in priests and sacrificial animals: in Leviticus 21:18 the APB renders a man who has a defect and then lists blindness, lameness, and facial or limb conditions; in Leviticus 22:21 it renders the required animal as having “no blemish in it.” In Leviticus 21:23, Deuteronomy 15:21, and Numbers 19:2, the condition is tied respectively to approaching the altar, sacrificing an animal, and selecting a red heifer.
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Injury or inflicted bodily harm · occasional
In Leviticus 24:19 and Leviticus 24:20, the singular absolute form occurs in the rule that what a person has done to a neighbor is to be done in return. The APB renders the surrounding clauses with “injures,” followed by “Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” locating the term in reciprocal bodily harm.
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Fault or reproach in conduct and appraisal · occasional
The construct form occurs in Deuteronomy 32:5, where the APB renders a corrupt and twisted generation as no longer God’s children because of its “blemish.” In Proverbs 9:7, the APB says that rebuking the wicked brings the rebuker “his own blemish,” while Job 11:15 and Song of Songs 4:7 use the absence of such a flaw in descriptions of an uplifted face and a beautiful companion.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the supplied verses, the APB commonly presents the condition with “blemish” and its absence with “unblemished.” In Leviticus 24:19 and Leviticus 24:20 it instead renders the surrounding legal clauses in terms of injury and fracture; These are presentations of the clauses rather than fixed English equivalents.