the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘Something like mildew has appeared in my house.’
Parallel translations
- WEB then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘There seems to me to be some sort of plague in the house.’
- KJV 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:
- NKJV and he who owns the house comes and tells the priest, saying, ‘It seems to me that there is some plague in the house,’
- NASB then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘Something like a spot of leprosy has become visible to me in the house.’
- NLT The owner of such a house must then go to the priest and say, ‘It appears that my house has some kind of mildew.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The homeowner must report a suspected plague in the house to the priest. It matters because defilement was to be brought honestly to God's appointed examiner rather than hidden.
Overview
The owner is to come and tell the priest of a suspected contamination, submitting the matter to priestly judgment. The cautious wording, 'some sort of plague,' shows the owner does not presume the verdict himself. This honest reporting models the believer's call to bring suspected sin into the light before God rather than conceal it (1 John 1:7-9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ps 91:10no evil will befall you, no plague will approach your tent.
- Deut 7:26And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.
- Zech 5:4I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.”
- Prov 3:33The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous.
- 1 Kgs 13:34And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth.
- Josh 7:21When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
- 1 Sam 3:12–14On that day I will carry out against Eli everything I have spoken about his family, from beginning to end.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 14:35 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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