What Does Leviticus 14:46 Mean in the King James?

Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even.

Leviticus 14:46 · KJV

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 entrant’s uncleanness has a boundary: even while the house remains shut, it lasts only until evening.

THE MEANING

When you enter a space that is still shut away, this verse names the contact as making you unclean until evening. The condition is real, and it has a stated limit. It does not become a permanent name for the person.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that one contact makes a person unclean forever: the verse gives this condition an endpoint.

THE ROOT

הִסְגִּיר

hisgîr

GROWS FROM

סגר

To close or shut; in this form, to shut something up or close it off.

“shut up” in this verse is hisgîr. The root holds together the act of closing and the boundary that results: ⁨מִסְגֶּרֶת⁩ (misgeret) also means a frame or border. Here, the house’s closure frames the entrant’s condition, rather than making that condition endless.

ALSO GROWS

sāgar: Close, shut.

סָגַר

This base form names the closing that keeps the house inaccessible.

misgeret: Frame, border, or enclosure.

מִסְגֶּרֶת

This branch names a boundary that holds something within limits, echoing the closed house in the verse.

הָעָרֶב

haʿerev

GROWS FROM

ערב

To grow dark or become evening; the word family also names the west, where the sun sets.

“even” in this verse is haʿerev. The Hebrew for evening belongs to the same word family as ⁨מַעֲרָב⁩ (maʿarav), west, the direction of sunset. The endpoint is not indefinite: this condition lasts to the day’s turn toward darkness.

ALSO GROWS

ʿerev: Evening or dusk.

עֶרֶב

This is the time boundary given for the entrant’s uncleanness.

maʿarav: West.

מַעֲרָב

The word family links evening with the direction of sunset, giving the stated endpoint a visible daily threshold.

THE PATTERN

An unclean state is bounded: it has a named time or way by which it ends.

And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even.

Leviticus 11:24 · KJVAs in the current verse, contact brings a real condition of uncleanness with evening as its stated limit.

Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even.

Numbers 19:7 · KJVHere too, uncleanness has a defined duration and a way back into the camp.

And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.

Mark 1:42 · KJVThe condition ends immediately here, showing uncleanness as a state that can end rather than a permanent name.

THE THREAD

If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days:

Leviticus 13:4 · KJV

The same root, ⁨סגר⁩ (s-g-r), names the act of shutting someone up for examination. In this verse it describes the house’s closure; the entrant’s resulting condition still has a stated limit, ending at evening.

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