Numbers 5:14

וְעָבַר עָלָיו רֽוּחַ־קִנְאָה וְקִנֵּא אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ וְהִוא נִטְמָאָה אוֹ־עָבַר עָלָיו רֽוּחַ־קִנְאָה וְקִנֵּא אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ וְהִיא לֹא נִטְמָֽאָה׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְעָבַ֨ר עָלָ֧יו רֽוּחַ־קִנְאָ֛ה וְקִנֵּ֥א אֶת־אִשְׁתּ֖וֹ וְהִ֣וא נִטְמָ֑אָה אוֹ־עָבַ֨ר עָלָ֤יו רֽוּחַ־קִנְאָה֙ וְקִנֵּ֣א אֶת־אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וְהִ֖יא לֹ֥א נִטְמָֽאָה׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἐπέλθῃ αὐτῷ πνεῦμα ζηλώσεως καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, αὐτὴ δὲ μεμίανται, ἢ ἐπέλθῃ αὐτῷ λώσεως καὶ ζηλώσῃ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, αὐτὴ δὲ μὴ ᾖ μεμιαμμένη·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

si spiritus zelotypiæ concitaverit virum contra uxorem suam, quæ vel polluta est, vel falsa suspicione appetitur:

Spanish

y el espíritu de celos se apodera del esposo, y siente celos de su mujer, estando ella contaminada; o si el espíritu de celos se apodera de él, y siente celos de su mujer, aunque ella no esté contaminada;

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Si viniere sobre él espíritu de celo, y tuviere celos de su mujer, habiéndose ella contaminado; ó viniere sobre él espíritu de celo, y tuviere celos de su mujer, no habiéndose ella contaminado;

English

and if a feeling of jealousy comes over her husband and he suspects his wife who has defiled herself — or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he suspects her even though she has not defiled herself —

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse describes two parallel scenarios in which a ruach qin'ah ("spirit of jealousy", H7307/H7068) comes over a husband, causing him to be jealous of his wife — once in a case where she has in fact made herself unclean, and once in a case where she has not. The two clauses are grammatically identical except for the final negation, which flips the outcome.

Key words

'a.Var ("it passed/will pass", H5674A) — qal perfect used twice, once as sequential perfect continuing the narrative chain, once as a plain completed action introduced by 'o ("or", H0176A); the verb describes the spirit "passing over" the husband.
Ru.ach ("spirit of", H7307G) — feminine singular construct noun, bound to qin'ah, forming the fixed expression "spirit of jealousy" rather than "a spirit" and "jealousy" as separate ideas.
ki.Ne' ("he will be/was jealous of", H7065) — piel (intensive stem) sequential perfect, marking an intensified emotional/legal state rather than a simple action; repeated identically in both halves of the verse.
nit.Ma.'ah ("she has made herself unclean", H2930A) — niphal perfect, a passive/reflexive stem describing the wife's completed state of defilement; it appears twice, once affirmed, once negated by lo' ("not", H3808).
Hiv' / Hi' ("she", H1931) — independent personal pronoun placed before the verb in both clauses, giving emphasis to "she" as the one who is or is not defiled, distinct from the husband's jealousy.

What the text says

The Hebrew constructs two mirrored conditional clauses joined by 'o ("or", H0176A). Each clause follows the same sequence: the spirit of jealousy "passes over" ('a.Var, H5674A) the husband, he "is jealous of" (ki.Ne', H7065) his wife ('ishto, H0802H with suffix), and then a final clause states her status using the independent pronoun hi' ("she", H1931) plus the niphal perfect nit.Ma.'ah ("she has made herself unclean", H2930A). The only difference between the two parallel structures is the presence of the negation lo' ("not", H3808) before the second occurrence of nit.Ma.'ah.

The construct phrase ruach-qin'ah ("spirit of jealousy") is repeated verbatim in both clauses, and the piel verb qinne' ("he was jealous of") shares the same root, so the Hebrew text emphasizes the jealousy vocabulary twice per clause. The independent pronoun hi'/hiv' before the verb is grammatically unnecessary (since the verb already marks "she"), so its presence gives contrastive weight to "she" — highlighting that the wife's actual state of defilement or non-defilement is the pivot distinguishing the two scenarios, regardless of the husband's identical jealous reaction in both cases.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the second occurrence of ruach-qin'ah incompletely in the provided text (showing only "λώσεως" for the construct phrase), while the Hebrew repeats the full phrase "רֽוּחַ־קִנְאָה" identically both times. The Vulgate condenses the two Hebrew conditional clauses into a single sentence using vel...vel ("either...or"), differing in structure from the Hebrew's repeated ve...'o pattern, though the semantic content (defiled vel non-defiled wife) is preserved.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.