Leviticus 14:48

Summary

This verse describes the priest's return inspection after a house suspected of having a contaminating plague has been replastered. If the plague has not spread after the replastering, the priest declares the house pure, because the plague has healed.

Key words

• bo' ("indeed ", H0935G) — infinitive absolute paired with the finite verb yaVo' to intensify the action: "he will surely come."
• yaVo' ("he will come", H0935G) — qal imperfect; combined with the preceding infinitive absolute, expresses emphatic certainty of the priest's return.
• paSah ("it has spread", H6581) — qal perfect negated by lo', describing a completed (non-)action: the plague's failure to spread.
• hiToach ("was plastered", H2902A) — niphal infinitive construct, passive sense: "the being-plastered," marking the temporal point ("after") from which the inspection follows.
• tiHar ("he will declare pure", H2891) — piel sequential perfect; the piel stem gives a declarative-causative sense, "to pronounce/render pure," distinct from a simple statement of purity.
• nirPa' ("it has been healed", H7495) — niphal perfect, passive: the plague "has been healed," giving the causal reason (ki, "for") for the priest's declaration.

What the text says

The verse opens with the construction bo' yaVo' — infinitive absolute plus finite verb of the same root (H0935G) — a common Biblical Hebrew device that intensifies or confirms the verbal action. Here it underscores that the priest's coming back to inspect is a definite, expected step in the procedure, not incidental. The sentence then moves through a chain of sequential perfects (ra'Ah, "he will see"; tiHar, "he will declare pure") joined by the narrative vav, which in this context carries the sense of continuing consequence: seeing leads to (a possible) declaring.

The core condition is marked by hinneh ("there!") followed by the negated perfect lo' paSah, presenting the observed fact as vivid and immediate — the plague "has not spread." The temporal clause acharei hiToach ("after the being-plastered") uses a niphal infinitive to background the replastering as a completed passive process preceding the inspection, without naming who performed it. Finally, ki nirPa' hanNaga' ("for the plague has been healed") supplies the stated reason for the priest's declaration, using the niphal perfect nirPa' to present the healing as something that happened to the plague, without specifying an agent.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the double verb construction bo' yaVo' with a participle plus finite verb (παραγενόμενος εἰσέλθῃ), conveying similar emphasis through a different grammatical means (participle + subjunctive) rather than the Hebrew infinitive-absolute pattern. The Vulgate simplifies this to a single participle, introiens ("entering"), losing the emphatic doubling present in the Hebrew.