Leviticus 14:40-45

14:40 then the priest is to command that the stones that had the infection in them be pulled and thrown ¹  outside the city ²  into an unclean place. 14:41 Then he is to have the house scraped ³  all around on the inside, ⁴  and the plaster ⁵  which is scraped off ⁶  must be dumped outside the city ⁷  into an unclean place. 14:42 They are then to take other stones and replace those stones, ⁸  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, ⁹  14:44 the priest is to come and examine it, and if ¹⁰  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, ¹¹  its stones, its wood, and all the plaster of the house, and bring all of it ¹²  outside the city to an unclean place.

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¹ tn 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.

² tn Heb “into from outside to the city.”

³ tn 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).

⁴ tn Heb “from house all around.”

⁵ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV) or “rubble”; NIV “the material”; NLT “the scrapings.”

⁶ tn 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”).

⁷ tn Heb “into from outside to the city.”

⁸ tn Heb “and bring into under the stones.”

⁹ tn 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).”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “If he sees that the mark has indeed spread.”

¹¹ tn 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).

¹² tn Once again, Smr, LXX, and Syriac have the plural verb, perhaps to be rendered passive, “shall be brought.”