Leviticus 14:1-32

Contemporary English Version

The Ceremony for People Healed of Leprosy

14 The Lord told Moses to say to the people:

^2-3 (A) After you think you are healed of leprosy,^[a] you must ask for a priest to come outside the camp and examine you. And if you are well, ⁴ he will order someone to bring out two live birds that are acceptable for sacrifice, together with a stick of cedar wood, a piece of red yarn, and a branch from a hyssop plant. ⁵ The priest will order someone to kill one of the birds over a clay pot of spring water. ⁶ Then he will dip the other bird, the cedar, the red yarn, and the hyssop in the blood of the dead bird. ⁷ Next, he will sprinkle you seven times with the blood and say, “You are now clean.” Finally, he will release the bird and let it fly away.

⁸ After this you must wash your clothes, shave your entire body, and take a bath before you are completely clean. You may move back into camp, but you must not enter your tent for seven days. ⁹ Then you must once again shave your head, face, and eyebrows, as well as the hair on the rest of your body. Finally, wash your clothes and take a bath, and you will be completely clean.

¹⁰ On the eighth day you must bring to the priest two rams and a year-old female lamb that have nothing wrong with them; also bring 300 milliliters of olive oil and 3 kilograms of your finest flour mixed with oil. ¹¹ Then the priest will present you and your offerings to me at the entrance to my sacred tent. ¹² There he will offer one of the rams, together with the oil, as a sacrifice to make things right.^[b] He will also lift them up^[c] to show that they are dedicated to me. ¹³ This sacrifice is very holy. It belongs to the priest and must be killed in the same place where animals are killed as sacrifices for sins and as sacrifices to please me.^[d]

¹⁴ The priest will smear some of the blood from this sacrifice on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot. ¹⁵ He will then pour some of the olive oil into the palm of his left hand, ¹⁶ dip a finger of his right hand into the oil, and sprinkle some of it seven times toward the sacred tent. ¹⁷ Next, the priest will smear some of the oil on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot, ^18-20 and he will pour the rest of the oil from his palm on your head. Then he will offer the other two animals—one as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me, together with a grain sacrifice. After this you will be completely clean.

²¹ If you are poor and cannot afford to offer this much, you may offer a ram as a sacrifice to make things right, together with 300 milliliters of olive oil and one kilogram of flour mixed with oil as a grain sacrifice. The priest will then lift these up^[e] to dedicate them to me. ²² Depending on what you can afford, you must also offer either two doves or two pigeons, one as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me. ²³ The priest will offer these to me in front of the sacred tent on the eighth day.

^24-25 The priest will kill this ram for the sacrifice to make things right, and he will lift it up^[f] with the olive oil in dedication to me. Then he will smear some of the blood on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot.

²⁶ The priest will pour some of the olive oil into the palm of his left hand, ²⁷ then dip a finger of his right hand in the oil and sprinkle some of it seven times toward the sacred tent. ²⁸ He will smear some of the oil on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot, just as he did with the blood of the sacrifice to make things right. ^29-31 And he will pour the rest of the oil from his palm on your head.

Then, depending on what you can afford, he will offer either the doves or the pigeons together with the grain sacrifice. One of the birds is the sacrifice for sin, and the other is the sacrifice to please me. After this you will be completely clean.

³² These are the things you must do if you have leprosy and cannot afford the usual sacrifices to make you clean.