Leviticus 14:34-38

14:34 “When you enter the land of Canaan which I am about to give ¹  to you for a possession, and I put ²  a diseased infection in a house in the land you are to possess, ³  14:35 then whoever owns the house ⁴  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 cleared ⁵  before the priest enters to examine the infection ⁶  so that everything in the house ⁷  does not become unclean, ⁸  and afterward ⁹  the priest will enter to examine the house. 14:37 He is to examine the infection, and if ¹⁰  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 

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

² tn Heb “give.”

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

⁴ tn Heb “who to him the house.”

⁵ tn 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.

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

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

⁸ sn 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.

⁹ tn Heb “and after thus.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV).

¹¹ tn 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.

¹² tn 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).

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