Instructions for Women after Childbirth

12 Yahweh spoke to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites: When a woman gives birth to a boy, she will be unclean for seven days. This is the same number of days she is unclean for her monthly period. ³ The boy must be circumcised when he is eight days old. ⁴ Then she must stay at home for 33 days in order to be made clean from her bleeding. She must not touch anything holy or go into the holy place until the days needed to make her clean are over.

⁵ “When a woman gives birth to a girl, she will be unclean as in her monthly period. However, she will be unclean for two weeks. Then she must stay at home for 66 days in order to be made clean from her bleeding.

⁶ “When the days needed to make her clean are over, she must bring a one-year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a mourning dove as an offering for sin. She must bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁷ The priest will offer them in Yahweh’s presence to make peace with the Lord for her. Then she will be clean from her flow of blood.

“These are the instructions for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl. ⁸ If she cannot afford a lamb, she must use two mourning doves or two pigeons. One will be the burnt offering and the other the offering for sin. So the priest will make peace with the Lord for her, and she will be clean.”