Leviticus 13:54

Summary

The verse describes the priest issuing an order for the affected item to be washed, referring to whatever surface carries the plague-mark, after which he is to isolate it for a second period of seven days. The Hebrew chains four consecutive actions using vav plus perfect verb forms, continuing the narrative sequence from the preceding verses.

Key words

• tzi.Vah ("he will command", H6680) — piel sequential perfect; the priest is the sole subject of this act.
• Khi.be.Su ("they will wash", H3526H) — piel sequential perfect but with a plural subject, distinct from the singular tzi.Vah; the text has "they" (not the priest) carrying out the washing.
• Na.ga' ("plague", H5061) — masculine singular noun, the mark or affliction under inspection, the antecedent of the relative clause in words 8–12.
• his.gi.R ("he will shut up", H5462) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect; the priest personally performs the isolating, contrasting with the plural washers.
• she.Nit ("a second", H8145) — feminine singular ordinal used adverbially, marking that this seven-day shutting-up is a repetition of an earlier one.

What the text says

The clause structure moves through four verbs joined by narrative vav, each carrying forward the sequence of ritual action: the priest commands (tzi.Vah), a plural group washes (Khi.be.Su), and the priest again shuts up the item (his.gi.R). The shift in grammatical number — singular verb for the priest's command and his shutting-up, but plural verb for the washing — indicates that the washing itself is executed by people other than the priest, even though he is the one who orders it.

The object being washed is not named directly by a noun like "garment" or "article." Instead, the Hebrew uses a relative construction: 'a.Sher ("that which", H0834A) plus bo ("in it", preposition + suffix H9033) plus ha.Na.ga' ("the plague", H5061) — literally "that which the plague is in it," identifying the item by its relationship to the mark rather than naming it. The final phrase shiv.'at-yamim ("seven of days", construct H7651 + H3117G) plus she.Nit ("a second", H8145) specifies the duration and marks it as a repeated seven-day period, implying an earlier seven-day isolation occurred before this verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the washing verb as singular (πλυνεῖ, "he will wash"), aligning the subject with the priest, where the Hebrew Khi.be.Su is grammatically plural ("they will wash"). The Vulgate similarly uses plural lavabunt ("they will wash"), matching the Hebrew's plural form rather than the LXX's singular. Both LXX (τὸ δεύτερον, "the second") and Vulgate (aliis, "other/additional") render she.Nit ("a second", H8145) as marking repetition, consistent with the Hebrew.