Leviticus 14

14 ¹ Our Father said to Moses:

² This is the law for someone with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing: he must be brought to the priest. ³ The priest is to go outside the camp and examine him; if his skin disease has healed, ⁴ The priest must order two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop taken for the one being cleansed. ^a a v4 Hyssop was a small bushy plant whose branches were used as a natural brush for sprinkling liquid in purification rites. ⁵ The priest is to command that one bird be slaughtered over a clay pot of fresh water. ⁶ He must take the live bird, the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn, and the hyssop, and dip them with the live bird in the blood of the bird slaughtered over the fresh water. ⁷ He sprinkles the blood seven times on the one being cleansed of the skin disease, pronounces him clean, then releases the live bird over the open field. ^b b v7 One bird was killed and the other, dipped in its blood, was set free to fly away alive — a picture of the death and risen life through which Jesus would one day cleanse his people.

⁸ The one being cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe in water — then he is clean. Afterward he may enter the camp, but stay outside his tent seven days. ⁹ On the seventh day he must shave off all his hair—head, beard, eyebrows—shaving off all his hair. Then he must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he is clean.

¹⁰ On the eighth day he must take two male lambs without defect, a year-old ewe lamb without defect, three quarts fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a cup of oil. ¹¹ The cleansing priest is to present the one being cleansed, with these offerings, before our Father at the tent of meeting's entrance.

¹² The priest takes one male lamb and offers it as a guilt offering, with the oil, waving them as a wave offering before our Father. ¹³ He must slaughter the lamb where the sin offering and burnt offering are slaughtered, in the holy place—since the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; it is most holy. ¹⁴ The priest shall take some blood of the guilt offering and put it on the right earlobe of the one being cleansed, on his right thumb, and on his right big toe. ¹⁵ The priest is to take some of the oil and pour it into his own left palm. ¹⁶ He must dip his right finger in the oil in his left palm and sprinkle some with his finger seven times before our Father. ¹⁷ With the oil remaining on his palm, the priest puts some on the right earlobe of the one being made clean, on his right thumb, and his right big toe, over the blood of the guilt offering. ¹⁸ The priest shall put the oil left in his palm on the head of the one made clean, making atonement for him before our Father. ¹⁹ The priest is to offer the sin offering and atone for the one made clean from his impurity; afterward he slaughters the burnt offering. ²⁰ The priest will offer the burnt and grain offerings on the altar, atone for him, and he will be clean.

²¹ But if he is poor and lacks the means, he shall take one male lamb as a guilt offering, to be waved for atonement for him, with a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, for a grain offering, and a log of oil, ²² and two turtledoves or two young pigeons—whichever he can afford, one as a sin offering, the other as a burnt offering.

²³ On the eighth day he must bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, before our Father. ²⁴ The priest takes the guilt-offering lamb and the log of oil, waving them as a wave offering before our Father. ²⁵ He must slaughter the guilt offering's lamb, take some of its blood, and put it on the right ear lobe, right thumb, and right big toe of the one being cleansed. ²⁶ The priest is to pour some of the oil into his own left palm, ²⁷ and with his right finger sprinkle some oil from his left palm seven times before our Father. ²⁸ The priest puts oil from his palm on the right earlobe of the one being made clean, his right thumb, and right big toe, over the place of the guilt offering's blood. ²⁹ The priest is to put the rest of the oil from his palm on the head of the one being cleansed, to atone for him before our Father. ³⁰ Then he is to offer one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, whichever he can afford, ³¹ Whichever he can afford—one as a sin offering, the other as a burnt offering, with the grain offering. The priest will make atonement before our Father for the one made clean.

³² This is the law for one with a skin disease who cannot afford the offerings for his cleansing.

Mildew in the House

³³ Our Father said to Moses and Aaron:

³⁴ When you enter the land of Canaan, which I give you as a possession, and I put a spreading mildew in a house in the land you possess, ³⁵ The owner must come tell the priest: 'Something like a disease has appeared in my house.' ³⁶ The priest must order the house emptied before he enters to examine the disease, so nothing in it is declared unclean; then he may enter to examine the house. ³⁷ He examines the disease, and if it is in the house's walls—greenish or reddish depressions that appear deeper than the surface, ³⁸ The priest must leave the house through its doorway and shut it up seven days. ³⁹ On the seventh day the priest returns to examine it. If the disease has spread on the house walls, ⁴⁰ He must order the diseased stones torn out and thrown outside the city, to an unclean place. ⁴¹ He must scrape the house's inside all around, and dump the scraped-off plaster outside the city in an unclean place. ⁴² Other stones are to replace the old ones, and new plaster is to cover the house.

⁴³ If the infection returns in the house after the stones are torn out, the house scraped, and plastered, ⁴⁴ The priest must enter and examine; if the disease has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew in the house—it is unclean. ⁴⁵ He must tear down the house—stones, timbers, and all its plaster—and haul it outside the city to an unclean place. ⁴⁶ Anyone who enters the house while it is closed is unclean until evening. ⁴⁷ Whoever lies or eats in the house must wash his clothes.

⁴⁸ If the priest comes, examines it, and the disease has not spread in the house after it was plastered, he is to declare it clean—the disease is healed. ⁴⁹ To cleanse the house he is to take two birds, with cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, ⁵⁰ and he is to slaughter one of the birds into a clay pot over fresh water. ⁵¹ He must take the cedar wood, hyssop, scarlet yarn, and the live bird, dip them in the slaughtered bird's blood and the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵² Then he must purify the house with the bird's blood, fresh water, the live bird, cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn. ⁵³ He is to release the live bird outside the city into the open field, make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.

⁵⁴ This is the law for any skin disease, for an itch, ⁵⁵ for mildew in a garment or a house, ⁵⁶ and for a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, ⁵⁷ to teach when something is unclean and when clean. This is the law of skin disease and mildew.