What Does Leviticus 14:2 Mean?

This shall be the instruction for the one struck in the skin, on the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest.

Leviticus 14:2 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest:

THE KEY

Cleansing reaches a threshold here: the person is brought before the priest, where his return can be witnessed.

THE MEANING

Your cleansing is not an isolated status; on its day, you are brought before the priest. The verse places the passage from cleansing toward recognized return in another person’s presence.

THE ROOT

טָהֳרָתוֹ

tahorato

GROWS FROM

טהר

ṭ-h-r

Be clean or pure; cleanse.

The same root holds purification and cleanness together: the day is named by the process, and the priest later uses this root to declare the person clean. What English separates into cleansing and being clean belongs to one unfolding passage.

ALSO GROWS

tahor: Clean, pure

טָהוֹר

This is the clean state named by the same root, connecting the day of cleansing to the state that is declared.

tiher: Cleansed, purified

טִהֵר

This verbal form appears in the rite’s declaration, carrying the same root from the process of purification into its recognized outcome.

וְהוּבָא

wehuva

GROWS FROM

בוא

b-w-ʾ

Come, enter; bring into or cause to enter.

The Hebrew form carries the root of coming or entering in a passive construction: he is caused to enter the priest’s presence. The English “brought” makes the escort clear; the root also lets the moment read as entry across a threshold.

ALSO GROWS

bo: Come, enter

בּוֹא

The root’s basic movement is toward arrival, giving “brought unto the priest” the sense of an entry.

mavo: Entrance, entry

מָבוֹא

This noun from the same root evokes the threshold crossed as the person enters the priest’s presence.

THE PATTERN

Cleansing becomes a passage toward shared life through a visible transition.

And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look and see, if the striking of the skin is healed in the one struck.

Leviticus 14:3 · SDVThe priest goes out to meet the person and looks for the change that marks the beginning of return.

Then he went down and immersed himself seven times in Jordan, according to the word of the man of God. And his flesh returned like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

2 Kings 5:14 · SDVNaaman’s cleansing takes visible form in his restored flesh after he enters the water.

And when he saw them, he said to them, Go, present yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass, that as they went, they were cleansed.

Luke 17:14 · SDVThe cleansing unfolds as the men go toward the priests, making their changed state part of a witnessed passage.

THE THREAD

And he shall sprinkle upon the one being cleansed from the striking of the skin seven times, and shall make him clean, and shall send the living bird out into the open field.

Leviticus 14:7 · SDV

The same ⁨טהר⁩ (ṭ-h-r) root names the cleansing day here and the priest’s act of declaring the person clean there. The rite then sends the living bird into the open field, making release part of the visible passage.

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