What Does Leviticus 14:38 Mean?
Then the priest shall go out of the house to the doorway of the house, and shut up the house seven days.
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.
King James wording
King James Version
Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days:THE KEY
The shut door is not the verdict; it is the space in which a verdict becomes possible.
THE MEANING
The priest steps outside, and the house is closed for a measured interval. That pause gives the condition inside time to become clear before the next decision. The verse holds observation as a form of care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A temporary closure is not the final judgment; the seven-day interval leaves room for the condition to be seen.
THE ROOT
הִסְגִּיר
hisgîr
GROWS FROM
סגר
To close, shut, or enclose; in the Hiphil form, to shut up or confine.
“shut up” in this verse is hisgîr. The word comes from סגר, a root for enclosing. Its forms can name both a shut enclosure and a boundary or frame, so the verse’s closure creates a defined space and interval for discernment.
ALSO GROWS
sāgar: To shut or close.
סָגַר
Genesis 7:16 uses this verb when the LORD shuts Noah in; the shared root names enclosure, while the scene shows what that enclosure means.
misgeret: A frame, border, or rim.
מִסְגֶּרֶת
The same root can describe a formed boundary, illuminating the house’s closure as a temporary boundary around the period of observation.
THE PATTERN
A defined boundary can hold a hidden condition or purpose while it unfolds.
If the shining spot is white in the skin of his flesh, and in its sight it is not deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white; then the priest shall shut in the one who has the stroke seven days;And those who came in, male and female of all flesh, came as God had commanded him, and the LORD shut him in.But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the hidden. And your Father, who sees in the hidden, will give it back to you in the open.THE THREAD
And those who came in, male and female of all flesh, came as God had commanded him, and the LORD shut him in.The Hebrew root סגר appears in both verses: here the priest shuts the house, and there the LORD shuts Noah in. The root names enclosure; the scene determines whether it holds a house for inspection or preserves Noah through the flood.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us