Purification for People With a Skin Disease

14 The Lord spoke to Moses:

² This is the law for the purification^[a] of a person with an impure skin disease:

When it is reported to the priest, ³ the priest shall go outside the camp. The priest shall examine him. If the area infected by the skin disease has become healthy, ⁴ the priest shall command that two clean wild birds, some cedar wood, some scarlet yarn, and some hyssop be taken for the person who is being purified. ⁵ The priest shall command that one bird be slaughtered in an earthen pot over water from a flowing source.^{[b] 6} After taking the live bird, along with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn, and the hyssop, he shall dip them, along with the live bird, into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the water from a flowing source. ⁷ He shall sprinkle the blood seven times on the person who is being purified from the skin disease. When he has declared him clean, he shall release the live bird into the open country. ⁸ The person who is being purified shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe in water; then, he will be clean. After that he may enter the camp, but he must stay outside his tent for seven days.

⁹ On the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair. He shall shave his head, his chin, his eyebrows, and all the rest of his hair. He shall wash his clothes and bathe in water; then, he will be clean.

¹⁰ On the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one yearling ewe without blemish, six quarts^[c] of fine flour for a grain offering mixed with olive oil, and one cup^[d] of olive oil. ¹¹ The priest who performs the purification shall make the person who is being purified stand in front of the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, together with the other objects. ¹² The priest shall take one of the male lambs, bring it forward as a restitution offering, together with the cup of olive oil, and wave it as a wave offering before the Lord. ¹³ The lamb shall be slaughtered in the sanctuary, at the place where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered, because the restitution offering is like the sin offering. It belongs to the priest. It is most holy.

¹⁴ The priest shall take some of the blood of the restitution offering and put it on the right ear lobe of the person who is being purified, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. ¹⁵ The priest shall take some of the olive oil from the cup and pour it into the palm of the priest’s left hand. ¹⁶ Then the priest shall dip his right finger into some of the olive oil that is in his left palm and sprinkle some of the olive oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. ¹⁷ Then the priest shall put some of the olive oil that remains in his palm on the right ear lobe of the person who is being purified, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the restitution offering. ¹⁸ The priest shall put the rest of the olive oil that is in his palm on the head of the person who is being purified. Then the priest will make atonement for him before the Lord. ¹⁹ The priest shall present the sin offering to make atonement for the person being purified from his impurity.

After that, the burnt offering is to be slaughtered, ²⁰ and the priest shall offer up the whole burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. In this way the priest shall make atonement for him so that he will be clean.

²¹ If, however, the unclean person is poor and he cannot afford all these items, he shall take one male lamb as a restitution offering to be waved to make atonement for him, two quarts^[e] of fine flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, and one cup of olive oil, ²² as well as two turtledoves or two pigeons (whichever are within his means), one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering.

²³ On the eighth day he shall bring them to the priest for his purification at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting in the presence of the Lord. ²⁴ The priest shall take the lamb for the restitution offering and the cup of olive oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. ²⁵ After the lamb for the restitution offering has been slaughtered, the priest shall take some of the blood of the restitution offering and place it on the lobe of the right ear of the person who is being purified, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. ²⁶ After the priest has poured out some of the olive oil on the palm of the priest’s left hand, ²⁷ the priest shall use his right finger to sprinkle some of the olive oil from his left palm before the Lord seven times. ²⁸ The priest shall also put some of the olive oil from his palm on the lobe of the right ear of the person being purified, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot—on the same places as the blood of the restitution offering. ²⁹ Then the priest shall put the rest of the olive oil that is in his palm on the head of the person who is being purified by making atonement for him before the Lord. ³⁰ The priest shall then offer one of the turtledoves or pigeons that are within the person’s means— ³¹ whichever he can afford—one as a sin offering and the other as a whole burnt offering, together with the grain offering. This is how the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person being purified.

³² These are the laws for anyone who has an outbreak of skin disease on him and whose means are insufficient at the time of his purification.

Purification of Contaminated Houses

³³ The Lord spoke these things to Moses and Aaron:

³⁴ When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put a contamination of mold^[f] on a house in the land that you possess, ³⁵ the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, “There seems to me to be some sort of contamination in my house.” ³⁶ The priest shall order the house to be cleared before the priest comes to examine the contamination, so that nothing in the house will be declared unclean. After that the priest shall go in to examine the house. ³⁷ If, when he examines the contamination, the contamination on the walls of the house consists of depressions that are bright green or bright red and that appear deeper than the surface of the wall, ³⁸ the priest shall come out of the house to the entrance of the house and quarantine the house for seven days. ³⁹ On the seventh day the priest shall return to examine it. If the contamination has spread on the walls of the house, ⁴⁰ the priest shall order that they rip out the stones with the contamination on them and throw them into an unclean place outside the town. ⁴¹ The house must be scraped all around the inside, and they must dump the mud that is scraped off in an unclean place outside the town. ⁴² They are to take other stones and bring them to replace those stones and other mud to plaster the house.

⁴³ If the contamination breaks out again in the house after the stones have been ripped out and after the house has been scraped and replastered, ⁴⁴ the priest shall go in to examine it. If the contamination has spread in the house, it is a destructive^[g] mold in the house. It is unclean. ⁴⁵ The house shall be demolished and its stones and timber and all its mud are to be brought out to an unclean place outside the town. ⁴⁶ Whoever enters the house at any time during its quarantine will be unclean until sunset. ⁴⁷ Whoever sleeps in the house must wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house must wash his clothes.

⁴⁸ If, however, the priest enters and sees that the contamination has not spread in the house after the house was plastered, the priest shall declare the house clean, because the contamination has been cleansed. ⁴⁹ To purify the house, he shall take two birds, some cedar wood, some scarlet yarn, and some hyssop. ⁵⁰ He shall slaughter one of the birds in a clay pot over water from a flowing source. ⁵¹ He shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn, and the live bird and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and in the water from a flowing source and sprinkle it on the house seven times. ⁵² When he has purified the house with the blood of the bird, the water from a flowing source, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet yarn, ⁵³ he shall release the live bird into the open country outside the town. In this way he shall make atonement for the house, so that it will be clean.

⁵⁴ This is the law for every infection of skin disease, for rash, ⁵⁵ for mold on clothing or a house, ⁵⁶ for discoloration and a scab and a shiny patch— ⁵⁷ to give instruction about when it is unclean and when it is clean.

This is the law concerning impure skin disease and contamination.