Leviticus 14:39

Summary

The verse describes the priest returning on the seventh day to re-inspect a house previously marked with a suspicious plague-mark, and finding that the affliction has spread on the walls of the house. This continues the diagnostic procedure for a "leprosy" (mold/mildew-type affliction) in a house structure.

Key words

• Shav ("he will return", H7725G) — qal sequential perfect; continues the narrative chain of priestly actions, marking this as the next required step in the ritual procedure.
• ra'ah ("he will see", H7200G) — qal sequential perfect; paired with Shav, indicating the priest's action of visual inspection as part of the sequence.
• hinneh ("there!", H2009) — interjection; introduces the observed fact with immediacy, functioning like a narrative spotlight on what the priest perceives.
• pasah ("it has spread", H6581) — qal perfect, completed action; describes the state discovered upon inspection, marking that the spreading has already occurred by the time of the observation.
• nega' ("plague", H5061) — masculine singular noun with definite article ha (H9009); the definite form ties this occurrence back to the specific mark previously identified in the narrative.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two sequential perfect verbs — Shav ("he will return", H7725G) and ra'ah ("he will see", H7200G) — both introduced by the narrative vav (H9001). This construction chains the priest's return and inspection as consecutive actions within an ongoing legal/ritual sequence, a common feature of Hebrew case-law style narrative.

The clause following hinneh ("there!", H2009) shifts to a plain qal perfect, pasah ("it has spread", H6581), describing a state already accomplished at the moment of observation — the spreading is presented as a completed fact that the priest discovers, not an action he witnesses in progress. The phrase be-qirot ha-bayit ("in the walls of the house") uses a construct form, qirot ("walls of", H7023), tying the plague's location directly to the house's structure.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew pasah ("it has spread", H6581) states that the plague has spread on the walls. The LXX, however, reads οὐ διεχύθη ("it was not spread"), a negated statement — describing the opposite outcome at this stage of inspection. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew's sense of growth, rendering "si invenerit crevisse lepram" ("if he finds the leprosy has grown"), consistent with the modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE), which all render the spreading as a condition ("if it has spread") rather than as the LXX's direct negation.