What Does Leviticus 13:46 Mean in the King James?
All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse makes exclusion a dwelling: outside the camp becomes the place where the afflicted person lives.
THE MEANING
When a condition is named unclean, the label reaches beyond the body and determines whether a person can dwell among others. The verse makes the cost concrete: the person lives alone outside the camp for as long as the affliction remains.
THE ROOT
מוֹשָׁבוֹ
moshavo
GROWS FROM
ישב
yashav
To sit, dwell, remain, or settle.
The verse places יֵשֵׁב (yeshev, he shall dwell) beside מוֹשָׁבוֹ (moshavo, his habitation), both from יָשַׁב (yashav, sit or dwell). The repeated root turns exclusion into an assigned residence: outside is where his life is made to settle.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit, dwell, or remain settled.
יָשַׁב
The verse uses this verb directly in “he shall dwell,” so the following word for habitation repeats the same root.
moshav: A dwelling, settled place, or seat.
מוֹשָׁב
This noun is the base of מוֹשָׁבוֹ (moshavo, his habitation), locating the exclusion in the person’s actual place of residence.
בָּדָד
badad
GROWS FROM
בדד
badad
To be alone, separate, or isolated.
“alone” in this verse is badad. The root names more than being physically outside a boundary: it names solitude itself. Here that solitude is imposed, making separation the condition of the person’s daily life.
ALSO GROWS
levaddo: By himself, alone.
לְבַדּוֹ
Genesis 2:18 uses this form for the human being alone; here the same root family marks solitude imposed by exclusion from the camp.
levadad: Alone, apart.
לְבָדָד
Numbers 23:9 uses this form for a people dwelling apart; here solitude is assigned to one person.
THE PATTERN
A communal boundary turns a judgment about a person into a concrete condition of where that person may belong.
Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell.They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.THE THREAD
How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!The Hebrew echoes both roots: יָשַׁב (yashav, sit or dwell) and בָּדָד (badad, be alone). Leviticus assigns solitary dwelling to one afflicted person; Lamentations gives the same posture to a city, extending the image of isolation from one person to an entire community.
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