The story you may have heardBecause English Bibles say 'leprosy' for the Hebrew ṣāraʿat, the word is sometimes thought to be Hebrew, and the biblical disease to be Hansen's disease. The word is Greek lépra 'scaliness'; ṣāraʿat covered various skin conditions and even mould on cloth and walls, and the Septuagint's choice of lepra is what tied the two together.