Leviticus 14:33-42

Purification of Disease-Infected Houses

14:33 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 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  14:39 The priest must return on the seventh day and examine it, and if ¹⁴  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 thrown ¹⁵  outside the city ¹⁶  into an unclean place. 14:41 Then he is to have the house scraped ¹⁷  all around on the inside, ¹⁸  and the plaster ¹⁹  which is scraped off ²⁰  must be dumped outside the city ²¹  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.

[14:34]  ¹ tn Heb “which I am giving” (so NAB, NIV).

[14:34]  ² tn Heb “give.”

[14:34]  ³ tn Heb “in the house of the land of your possession” (KJV and ASV both similar).

[14:35]  ¹ tn Heb “who to him the house.”

[14:36]  ¹ 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.

[14:36]  ² tn Heb “to see the infection”; KJV “to see the plague”; NASB “to look at the mark (mildew NCV).”

[14:36]  ³ tn Heb “all which [is] in the house.”

[14:36]  ⁴ 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.

[14:36]  ⁵ tn Heb “and after thus.”

[14:37]  ¹ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV).

[14:37]  ² 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.

[14:37]  ³ 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).

[14:38]  ¹ tn Heb “and he shall shut up the house seven days.”

[14:39]  ¹ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “If the mark has indeed spread.”

[14:40]  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.

[14:40]  ² tn Heb “into from outside to the city.”

[14:41]  ¹ 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).

[14:41]  ² tn Heb “from house all around.”

[14:41]  ³ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV) or “rubble”; NIV “the material”; NLT “the scrapings.”

[14:41]  ⁴ 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”).

[14:41]  ⁵ tn Heb “into from outside to the city.”

[14:42]  ¹ tn Heb “and bring into under the stones.”