What Does Leviticus 14:35 Mean in the King James?
And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house:
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 gives uncertainty a precise voice: what appears is reported, while judgment is left to examination.
THE MEANING
A troubling sign in the place that shelters you can be spoken of as an appearance before it is treated as a settled diagnosis. What you see is real enough to report, while its source still awaits examination.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must be certain before you can speak about what is wrong: the owner reports what appears to him, not a proven diagnosis.
THE ROOT
הִגִּיד
higgid
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
Make known, declare, bring into view.
The verb translated “tell” carries the sense of bringing something into view for another person. Related forms mean “before” or “in front of,” and “leader”; the owner places the troubling sign before the priest without claiming to judge it himself.
ALSO GROWS
nagad: Declare, tell, make known.
נָגַד
This is the root verb behind the owner’s report: what he sees becomes available to another.
neged: Before, in front of, opposite.
נֶגֶד
The report brings the condition before someone who can examine it.
nagid: Leader, ruler.
נָגִיד
This related form carries the sense of one who stands out or takes a leading position, echoing the act of bringing something into view.
נֶגַע
nega
GROWS FROM
נגע
n-g-ʿ
Touch, reach, strike; a stroke or affliction.
Beneath “plague” is the image of something that has touched or marked the house. The owner reports where the nega appears without claiming to know its cause.
ALSO GROWS
naga: Touch, reach, strike.
נָגַע
The verb gives the affliction its sense of something that has reached or touched a surface.
nagua: Touched, stricken, afflicted.
נָגוּעַ
This form describes one bearing the mark of an affliction, close to the house bearing a nega.
נִרְאָה
nir'ah
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
See, look, perceive.
“seemeth / appears” in this verse is nir'ah. The wording is literally an appearance to the speaker: the sign is seen by him, but is not yet a final determination of its source. Hebrew ties seeing to appearance itself, preserving the distinction between perception and judgment.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ah: See, look, perceive.
רָאָה
This is the basic act behind the owner’s careful statement: he reports what he sees.
mar'eh: Appearance, sight, vision.
מַרְאֶה
This related noun names what is visible, reinforcing that the report is about how the sign appears.
ro'eh: Seer, one who sees.
רֹאֶה
This form names the perceiver, keeping the speaker’s point of view present in his report.
THE PATTERN
A troubling condition moves toward response when it is brought into speech before those who can discern or tend it.
Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house:And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:THE THREAD
I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.The Hebrew verb rendered “tell” here and “shewed” in the Psalm comes from the same root: make known, declare. In both verses, trouble becomes something spoken and placed before another; the shared root makes disclosure the bridge.
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