Leviticus 14:43
וְאִם־יָשׁוּב הַנֶּגַע וּפָרַח בַּבַּיִת אַחַר חִלֵּץ אֶת־הָאֲבָנִים וְאַחֲרֵי הִקְצוֹת אֶת־הַבַּיִת וְאַחֲרֵי הִטּֽוֹחַ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאִם־יָשׁ֤וּב הַנֶּ֙גַע֙ וּפָרַ֣ח בַּבַּ֔יִת אַחַ֖ר חִלֵּ֣ץ אֶת־הָאֲבָנִ֑ים וְאַחֲרֵ֛י הִקְצ֥וֹת אֶת־הַבַּ֖יִת וְאַחֲרֵ֥י הִטּֽוֹחַ׃
ἐὰν δὲ ἐπέλθῃ πάλιν ἁφὴ καὶ ἀνατείλῃ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ μετὰ τὸ ἐξελεῖν τοὺς λίθους καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἀποξυσθῆναι τὴν οἰκίαν καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἐξαλειφθῆναι,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Sin autem postquam eruti sunt lapides, et pulvis erasus, et alia terra lita,
“Si la plaga vuelve a aparecer en la casa después de que le quitaron las piedras, la rasparon y la revocaron,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y si la plaga volviere á reverdecer en aquella casa, después que hizo arrancar las piedras, y descostrar la casa, y después que fué encostrada,
If the mildew reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house has been scraped and replastered,
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 14:43 describes the case in which the nega ("plague/mark", H5061) reappears in a house even after the contaminated stones have been removed, the house scraped, and re-plastered. The verse is grammatically a conditional protasis, listing three prior remedial actions before returning to the possibility of recurrence.
Key words
- yashuv ("it will return", H7725J) — qal imperfect, marking the hypothetical/future recurrence of the mark; opens the conditional clause with 'im.
- nega ("plague", H5061) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the subject of the returning action.
- chillets ("tears out", H2502A) — piel infinitive construct, intensive stem indicating a deliberate, forceful removal of the stones.
- hiktzot ("has scraped", H7096) — hiphil infinitive construct, causative stem: someone causes the house to be scraped.
- hittoach ("was plastered", H2902A) — niphal infinitive construct, passive/reflexive stem: the plastering happens without a named agent.
What the text says
The sentence opens with the conditional particle 'im ("if", H0518A) attached to yashuv ("it will return", H7725J), a qal imperfect verb expressing a future or repeated possibility. This is followed by u-farach ("and it will break out", H6524B), a sequential (vav-consecutive) perfect that continues the action begun by yashuv, so the two verbs together form a single narrative unit: "if the mark returns and breaks out."
The remainder of the verse is structured around the construct noun achar/acharei ("after", H0310A), repeated three times, each governing an infinitive construct. This creates a chain: "after tearing out the stones... after scraping the house... after it was plastered." The three infinitives show a shift in verbal stem: chillets (piel, H2502A) is an intensive active form for removing stones, hiktzot (hiphil, H7096) is causative for scraping, and hittoach (niphal, H2902A) is passive, describing the plastering without specifying who performed it. This stem variation distinguishes direct human intervention (piel, hiphil) from the resulting state of the house (niphal), a nuance not visible in translations that render all three simply as parallel completed actions ("torn out... scraped... replastered").
Differences between versions
The LXX renders nega as ἁφή ("touch/mark") and u-farach as ἀνατείλῃ ("rise up"), shifting the agricultural/plant imagery of "breaking out" (H6524B, elsewhere used of blossoming) toward a more general verb of appearing. The Vulgate does not preserve the conditional "if" ('im) as a separate opening clause but begins directly with "Sin autem postquam" ("But if, after..."), restructuring the sequence so the three prior actions are foregrounded before the conditional outcome, unlike the Hebrew where the condition is stated first.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.