Bible Strands
Leviticus 14:45
It must be torn down with its stones, its timbers, and all its plaster, and taken outside the city to an unclean place.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God gives Moses and Aaron instructions for the purification of a house declared unclean by the priest due to spreading mildew.
The words — וְנָתַץ (ve./na.Tatz) means "he will pull down," commanding the demolition of the house along with its stones and timbers.
The thread — Structural removal appears in 2 Kings 10:27, which describes tearing down the temple of Baal, while 1 Kings 9:6 and 2 Kings 17:20 record warnings of ruin and scattering following covenant breach.
Why it lands — The text mandates that all contaminated building materials be carried outside the city to an unclean place, requiring the community to sacrifice property for the sake of ritual purity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the morter of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 9:6 But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods,
- 2 Kings 10:27 They also demolished the sacred pillar of Baal. Then they tore down the temple of Baal and made it into a latrine, which it is to this day.
- 2 Kings 17:20 So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.
- 2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.
- 2 Kings 25:4 Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,
- 2 Kings 25:25 In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down and killed Gedaliah, along with the Judeans and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
- Jeremiah 52:13 He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.
- Ezekiel 5:4 Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.
- Matthew 22:7 The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city.
- Matthew 24:2 “Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”