Leviticus 14:37

Summary

The verse describes the priest examining the plague-mark on a house and finding depressions in the walls that are greenish or reddish in color, with an appearance that sits lower than the surface of the surrounding wall.

Key words

• Ne.ga' ("plague", H5061) — masculine singular noun, repeated twice (word 5 and word 9); the second occurrence is introduced by hi.Neh ("there!", H2009), an interjection that draws attention to the discovery within the narrative sequence.
• she.ka.'a.ru.Rot ("depressions", H8258) — feminine plural noun describing the physical shape of the marks: hollow or sunken spots in the wall surface.
• ye.rak.ra.Kot ("greenish", H3422) and 'a.dam.da.Mot ("reddish", H0125) — feminine plural adjectives modifying she.ka.'a.ru.Rot; both agree in gender and number with the noun they describe, and are joined by 'o ("or", H0176A), presenting them as alternative colorations of the same phenomenon.
• mar.'ei. ("appearance of", H4758) — masculine singular noun in construct form, meaning "appearance of," which takes the pronominal suffix Hen ("their", H9029) to form "their appearance," referring back to the depressions.
• sha.Fal ("[is] deep", H8217) — masculine singular adjective functioning as a predicate, stating that the appearance is lower than the comparative reference introduced by min- ("more than", H4480A).

What the text says

The verse opens with a sequential perfect verb, ra.'Ah ("he will see", H7200G), continuing the narrative chain begun with the conjunctive ve. ("and", H9001). The direct object is marked by 'et- (H0853, untranslated) followed by ha.Ne.ga' ("the plague", H5061), establishing what the priest looks at. The interjection hi.Neh ("there!", H2009) then shifts the sentence into a vivid present-tense observation, repeating ha.Ne.ga' to specify that the plague is located be.qi.Rot ha.Ba.yit ("in the walls of the house", H7023 + H1004B), using the construct chain "walls of the house."

The core description follows: she.ka.'a.ru.Rot ("depressions", H8258) modified by two feminine plural adjectives, ye.rak.ra.Kot ("greenish", H3422) and 'a.dam.da.Mot ("reddish", H0125), joined by 'o ("or", H0176A) to indicate that either color qualifies as the diagnostic sign. The final clause uses the construct noun mar.'ei ("appearance of", H4758) with the suffix Hen ("their", H9029) as subject, and the adjective sha.Fal ("[is] deep", H8217) as predicate, comparing the depressions' appearance to ha.Kir ("the wall", H7023) via the preposition min- ("more than", H4480A). The grammar thus builds a spatial comparison: the marked area appears lower than the surrounding wall surface.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) renders the Hebrew she.ka.'a.ru.Rot ("depressions") as κοιλάδας ("hollows/cavities") but does not translate the color term 'a.dam.da.Mot ("reddish"), retaining only χλωριζούσας ("greenish"), thus dropping the "or reddish" alternative present in the Hebrew. The Vulgate (Clementine) preserves both colors with pallore sive rubore ("paleness or redness") and adds a simile not explicit in the Hebrew, quasi valliculas ("like little valleys"), where the Hebrew simply states the depressions as a direct noun without a comparative marker.