Leviticus 14:34-45

14:34 “When you enter the land of Canaan which I am about to give¹ to you for a possession, and I put² a diseased infection in a house in the land you are to possess,³ 14:35 then whoever owns the house⁴ must come and declare to the priest, ‘Something like an infection is visible to me in the house.’ 14:36 Then the priest will command that the house be cleared⁵ before the priest enters to examine the infection⁶ so that everything in the house⁷ does not become unclean,⁸ and afterward⁹ the priest will enter to examine the house. 14:37 He is to examine the infection, and if¹⁰ the infection in the walls of the house consists of yellowish green or reddish eruptions,¹¹ and it appears to be deeper than the surface of the wall,¹² 14:38 then the priest is to go out of the house to the doorway of the house and quarantine the house for seven days.¹³ 14:39 The priest must return on the seventh day and examine it, and if¹⁴ the infection has spread in the walls of the house, 14:40 then the priest is to command that the stones that had the infection in them be pulled and thrown¹⁵ outside the city¹⁶ into an unclean place. 14:41 Then he is to have the house scraped¹⁷ all around on the inside,¹⁸ and the plaster¹⁹ which is scraped off²⁰ must be dumped outside the city²¹ into an unclean place. 14:42 They are then to take other stones and replace those stones,²² and he is to take other plaster and replaster the house.

14:43 “If the infection returns and breaks out in the house after he has pulled out the stones, scraped the house, and it is replastered,²³ 14:44 the priest is to come and examine it, and if²⁴ the infection has spread in the house, it is a malignant disease in the house. It is unclean. 14:45 He must tear down the house,²⁵ its stones, its wood, and all the plaster of the house, and bring all of it²⁶ outside the city to an unclean place.

¹tn Heb “which I am giving” (so NAB, NIV).

²tn Heb “give.”

³tn Heb “in the house of the land of your possession” (KJV and ASV both similar).

⁴tn Heb “who to him the house.”

⁵tn Heb “And the priest shall command and they shall clear the house.” The second verb (“and they shall clear”) states the thrust of the priest’s command, which suggests the translation “that they clear” (cf. also vv. 4a and 5a above), and for the impersonal passive rendering of the active verb (“that the house be cleared”) see the note on v. 4 above.

⁶tn Heb “to see the infection”; KJV “to see the plague”; NASB “to look at the mark (mildew NCV).”

⁷tn Heb “all which [is] in the house.”

⁸sn Once the priest pronounced the house “unclean” everything in it was also officially unclean. Therefore, if they emptied the house of its furniture, etc. before the official pronouncement by the priest those possessions would thereby remain officially “clean” and avoid destruction or purification procedures.

⁹tn Heb “and after thus.”

¹⁰tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV).

¹¹tn For “yellowish green and reddish” see Lev 13:49. The Hebrew term translated “eruptions” occurs only here and its meaning is uncertain. For a detailed summary of the issues and views see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:870. The suggestions include, among others: (1) “depressions” from Hebrew שׁקע (“sink”) or קער as the root of the Hebrew term for “bowl” (LXX, Targums, NAB, NASB, NIV; see also B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 90), (2) “streaks” (ASV, NJPS), (3) and “eruptions” as a loan-word from Egyptian sqr r rwtj (“eruption; rash”); cf. Milgrom, 870; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 198-99. The latter view is taken here.

¹²tn The Hebrew term קִיר (qir,“wall”) refers to the surface of the wall in this case, which normally consisted of a coating of plaster made of limestone and sand (see HALOT 1099 s.v. קִיר 1.a; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:871; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 199).

¹³tn Heb “and he shall shut up the house seven days.”

¹⁴tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “If the mark has indeed spread.”

¹⁵tn Heb “and the priest shall command and they shall pull out the stones which in them is the infection, and they shall cast them.” The second and third verbs (“they shall pull out” and “they shall throw”) state the thrust of the priest’s command, which suggests the translation “that they pull out…and throw” (cf. also vv. 4a, 5a, and 36a above), and for the impersonal passive rendering of the active verb (“be pulled and thrown”) see the note on v. 4 above.

¹⁶tn Heb “into from outside to the city.”

¹⁷tn Or, according to the plurality of the verb in Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Targums, “Then the house shall be scraped” (cf. NAB, NLT, and the note on v. 40).

¹⁸tn Heb “from house all around.”

¹⁹tn Heb “dust” (so KJV) or “rubble”; NIV “the material”; NLT “the scrapings.”

²⁰tn Heb “which they have scraped off.” The MT term קִיר (qir, “wall” from קָצָה, qatsah, “to cut off”; BDB 892), the original Greek does not have this clause, Smr has הקיצו (with uncertain meaning), and the BHS editors and HALOT 1123-24 s.v. I קצע hif.a suggest emending the verb to הִקְצִעוּ (hiqtsi’u, see the same verb at the beginning of this verse; cf. some Greek mss, Syriac, and the Targums). The emendation seems reasonable and is accepted by many commentators, but the root קָצָה (qatsah, “to cut off”) does occur in the Bible (2 Kgs 10:32; Hab 2:10) and in postbiblical Hebrew (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 179, notes 41c and 43d; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:873; cf. also קָצַץ, qatsats, “to cut off”).

²¹tn Heb “into from outside to the city.”

²²tn Heb “and bring into under the stones.”

²³tn Heb “after he has pulled out the stones, and after scraping (variant form of the Hiphil infinitive construct, GKC 531) the house, and after being replastered (Niphal infinitive construct).”

²⁴tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “If he sees that the mark has indeed spread.”

²⁵tn Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural verb, perhaps suggesting a passive translation, “The house…shall be torn down” (cf. NAB, NIV, TEV, NLT, and see the note on v. 4b above).

²⁶tn Once again, Smr, LXX, and Syriac have the plural verb, perhaps to be rendered passive, “shall be brought.”