Leviticus 14:47

Summary

The verse establishes that anyone who sleeps in, or eats in, a house affected by the condition described in the preceding verses must wash his clothing. The Hebrew presents this as two parallel cases, each with its own consequence.

Key words

• sho.Khev ("[one who] lies down", H7901H) — qal participle, masculine singular, functioning as a substantive: "the one who lies down / sleeps." Participles in Hebrew describe an ongoing or characteristic action, here identifying a category of person rather than a single event.
• Ba.yit ("house", H1004B) — masculine singular noun, preceded by preposition and article (ba-, "in the"), repeated identically in both halves of the verse, anchoring both actions (sleeping, eating) to the same location.
• ye.kha.Bes ("he will wash", H3526H) — piel (intensive stem) imperfect, third person masculine singular. The piel stem often marks intensive or repeated action; here it denotes the act of washing garments thoroughly. The imperfect aspect gives it a future/obligatory sense: "he will wash" / "he must wash."
• be.ga.Da(v) ("his garments", H0899B) — masculine plural noun in construct form with the pronominal suffix -av ("his"), yielding "his garments." Construct form links the noun tightly to its possessor.
• 'o.Khel ("[one who] eats", H0398) — qal participle, masculine singular, parallel in form and function to sho.Khev, marking the second category of person addressed.

What the text says

The verse is built as two grammatically parallel clauses joined by ve- ("and"). Each clause follows the same pattern: definite article + participle (identifying the person by action) + prepositional phrase "in the house" + verb "he will wash" + direct object marker + "his garments." This repetition creates a structural symmetry: ha-sho.Khev ba-bayit... ye.kha.Bes et-begadav / ha-'o.khel ba-bayit... ye.kha.Bes et-begadav. The participles sho.Khev and 'o.Khel do not name specific individuals but designate types of action — "the one who lies down" and "the one who eats" — functioning almost like legal categories in the Hebrew, comparable to "whoever sleeps" or "whoever eats."

The verb ye.kha.Bes, in the piel stem, appears identically in both clauses, indicating the same required action (washing garments) is prescribed regardless of which activity (sleeping or eating) occurred in the house. The imperfect form carries a directive nuance common to legal or instructional Hebrew prose, expressing what must happen rather than a simple future prediction.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (LXX) adds a phrase not present in the Hebrew text given here: καὶ ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται ἕως ἑσπέρας ("and he will be unclean until evening"), repeated after each washing instruction. This clause has no corresponding Hebrew words in the provided text. The Vulgate condenses the two Hebrew clauses (sleeping/eating) into a single combined clause — "qui dormierit in ea, et comederit quippiam" ("whoever has slept in it and eaten anything") — merging what the Hebrew presents as two separate, parallel cases into one continuous condition.