Leviticus 14:2

Summary

The verse opens the priestly regulation (torah) concerning the person afflicted with a skin disease, specifying that it applies on the day of his purification, when he is to be brought to the priest. It functions as a heading introducing the procedure that follows in the chapter.

Key words

• zot ("this", H2063) — demonstrative particle pointing forward to the regulation about to be stated.
• torat ("legal procedure of", H8451) — construct form of "law/instruction," linking grammatically to ha-metzora, "the law of the metzora."
• metzora' ("one who has a serious skin disease", H6879) — pual passive participle: grammatically it describes someone afflicted (acted upon) rather than possessing an inherent quality, marking the condition as something imposed on the person.
• tohorato ("his purification", H2893 + suffix) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, forming the phrase "day of his purification," a fixed temporal marker.
• huva' ("he will be brought", H0935P) — hophal (causative passive) perfect with vav-consecutive, indicating the person is brought by another's action, continuing the narrative sequence begun by tihyeh.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a legal heading: zot tihyeh torat ha-metzora ("this will be the torah of the metzora") establishes the topic before any procedural detail is given. The construct chain torat ha-metzora ties the abstract term "law/procedure" directly to the participial noun "the metzora," so the regulation is defined by reference to the afflicted person's status rather than to the disease itself as an abstract entity.

The temporal clause be-yom tohorato ("on the day of his purification") uses a construct noun phrase rather than a finite verb, presenting the moment as a fixed point tied to the process of purification already underway, not describing the purification act itself. The following clause shifts from participial/nominal description to narrative action: ve-huva' el ha-kohen ("and he will be brought to the priest") uses the hophal form, marking the subject as the recipient of an action performed by an unspecified agent — grammatically foregrounding the subject's passivity in being brought, consistent with the earlier passive characterization of metzora' itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders be-yom tohorato ("on the day of his purification," a noun phrase) as ᾗ ἀν' ἡμέρᾳ καθαρισθῇ ("on whatever day he is cleansed"), using a subjunctive verb clause instead of the Hebrew's construct noun phrase. The Vulgate similarly shifts to a verbal construction, "quando mundandus est" ("when he is to be cleansed"), using a gerundive. Both versions convert the Hebrew's static nominal phrase into a dynamic clause describing the act of cleansing, where the Hebrew instead names the day by reference to the state of purification.