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:

then he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, There seemeth to me to be as it were a plague in the house.

He whose house it is, shall go and tell the priest, saying: It seemeth to me, that there is the plague of leprosy in my house,

then he whose house it is shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me like a plague in the house;

then hath he whose the house is come in and declared to the priest, saying, As a plague hath appeared to me in the house;

And he that ownes the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seems to me there is as it were a plague in the house:

Then let the owner of the house come and say to the priest, It seems to me that there is a sort of leper's disease in the house.

he whose house it is shall go and report to the priest, saying: "It seems to me that the mark of leprosy is in my house."

Veniet ille cujus erit domus, renuuntiabitque sacerdoti, dicendo,. Tanquam plaga leprae visa est mihi in domo.

And he that owneth the house shall come, and tell the priest,.... As soon as he observes any sign of leprosy in it, or which gives him a suspicion of it:
saying, it seemeth unto me there is as it were a plague in the house; he must not say expressly there is one, how certain soever he may be of it, because the matter must be determined by a priest: so runs the Jewish canon (i), he whose the house is comes and declares to the priest, saying, there appears to me as a plague in the house; and though he is a wise man, and knows that there is a plague certainly, he may not determine, and say, there appears to me a plague in the house, but there appears to me as it were a plague in the house; it looks like one, there is some reason to suspect it.
(i) Misn. Negaim, c. 12. sect. 5. Jarchi in loc.

When the evil showed itself in a house, the owner was to send this message to the priest, "A leprous evil has appeared in my house," and the priest, before entering to examine it, was to have the house cleared, lest everything in it should become unclean. Consequently, as what was in the house became unclean only when the priest had declared the house affected with leprosy, the reason for the defilement is not to be sought for in physical infection, but must have been of an ideal or symbolical kind.