Leviticus 14:52

Summary

This verse describes the priest's action of decontaminating/purifying (chi.Te', H2398) the house using a set of ritual materials: the blood of a bird, fresh water, a living bird, cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet-dyed material. The verse lists the instruments of purification in a single continuous clause.

Key words

• chi.Te' ("he will cleanse from sin", H2398) — Piel stem (intensive/causative) sequential perfect, indicating an intensive purifying action performed by the subject (the priest, understood from context) on the house.
• Dam ("[the] blood of", H1818) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to ha.tzi.Por ("the bird") to form "blood of the bird."
• chai.Yim / chai.Yah ("living", H2416A) — adjective appearing twice, once masculine plural modifying Ma.yim ("water", H4325G) and once feminine singular modifying tzi.Por ("bird", H6833), agreeing in gender and number with each noun it describes.
• 'Etz ("[the] wood of", H6086G) — masculine singular noun in construct state, forming "wood of the cedar" with 'E.rez ("cedar", H0730).
• sh.Ni ("[the] scarlet of", H8144) — masculine singular noun in construct state, forming "scarlet of the worm/insect" with to.La.'at ("worm", H8438B).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure is built around a single verb, chi.Te' ("he will cleanse from sin", H2398), followed by the direct object ha.Bayit ("the house", H1004B) marked with 'et- (H0853), and then a series of six prepositional phrases each introduced by be- or va- ("with/in the", H9003), listing the materials used in the cleansing act. The repeated conjunction u- ("and", H9002) before several of these phrases creates a paratactic chain, joining each element as a separate component rather than subordinating them to one another.

Two construct-state noun pairs are notable: Dam ha.tzi.Por ("blood of the bird") and 'Etz ha.'Erez ("wood of the cedar"), where the first noun in each pair (H1818, H6086G) is grammatically bound to the second, expressing a genitive-like relationship without needing a separate word for "of." The same construct pattern appears with sh.Ni ha.to.La'at ("scarlet of the worm"), where H8144 stands in construct with H8438B, indicating that the scarlet color/material is specified as originating from or associated with the to.La'at ("worm", H8438B). The adjective chai.Yim/chai.Yah ("living", H2416A) agrees in gender and number with each noun it modifies — masculine plural with Ma.yim ("water") and feminine singular with tzi.Por ("bird") — showing that Hebrew grammar tracks agreement precisely even when the same adjectival root is repeated for different referents.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Dam ha.tzi.Por ("blood of the bird", H1818 + H6833) as "τῷ αἵματι τοῦ ὀρνιθίου" ("blood of the little bird"), using a diminutive form (ὀρνιθίου) not distinguished in the Hebrew text, which uses the same noun tzi.Por (H6833) for both birds mentioned in the verse. The Vulgate renders ha.tzi.Por ("the bird") in the first instance as "passeris" ("sparrow"), a more specific term than the Hebrew's general tzi.Por (H6833), which simply means "bird."