The Cleansing of a Skin Disease
1Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 2“This is the law for the person with a defiling skin disease on the day of his cleansing: he must be brought to the priest, 3and the priest is to go outside the camp to examine him. If the sore has healed and the skin disease has left the afflicted person, 4the priest is to order two live, clean birds brought for the one to be cleansed, along with cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop. 5The priest is to order one of the birds slaughtered over fresh water in a clay pot. 6Then he is to take the live bird, together with the cedar wood, the scarlet thread, and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. 7He is to sprinkle the one to be cleansed from the skin disease seven times, pronounce him clean, and release the live bird into the open field. 8The one who is cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe in water — then he will be clean. After that he may come into the camp, but he must stay outside his tent for seven days. 9On the seventh day he is to shave off all his hair — his head, his beard, his eyebrows, all of it — and wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he will be clean. 10On the eighth day he is to take two male lambs without defect, one ewe lamb a year old without defect, three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil. 11The priest performing the cleansing is to present the man being cleansed, together with these offerings, before Yahweh at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 12The priest is to take one of the male lambs and offer it as a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, and wave them as a wave offering before Yahweh. 13He is to slaughter the lamb in the place where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered, in the sanctuary — for like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy. 14The priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 15The priest is to take some of the log of oil and pour it into his own left palm, 16dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left palm, and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before Yahweh. 17Of the oil remaining in his palm, the priest is to put some on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering. 18The rest of the oil in his palm the priest is to put on the head of the one being cleansed, and so make atonement for him before Yahweh. 19Then the priest is to offer the sin offering and make atonement for the one being cleansed from his uncleanness. After that he is to slaughter the burnt offering, 20and offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be clean. 21But if he is poor and cannot afford so much, he is to take one male lamb as a guilt offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, along with a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, a log of oil, 22and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whichever he can afford — one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. 23On the eighth day he is to bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the entrance to the tent of meeting, before Yahweh. 24The priest is to take the lamb of the guilt offering, together with the log of oil, and wave them as a wave offering before Yahweh. 25He is to slaughter the lamb of the guilt offering and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 26The priest is to pour some of the oil into his own left palm, 27and with his right finger sprinkle some of the oil that is in his left palm seven times before Yahweh. 28The priest is to put some of the oil in his palm on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, in the same places as the blood of the guilt offering. 29The rest of the oil in his palm the priest is to put on the head of the one being cleansed, to make atonement for him before Yahweh. 30Then he is to offer one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, whichever he can afford, 31one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. In this way the priest will make atonement before Yahweh for the one being cleansed. 32This is the law for the person who has a defiling skin disease and cannot afford the regular offerings for his cleansing.”
A Contaminating Mold in a House
33Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, 34“When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put a spreading mold in a house in the land you possess, 35the owner of the house must come and tell the priest, saying, ‘Something like a mold has appeared in my house.’ 36The priest is to order the house cleared before he goes in to examine the mold, so that nothing in the house will be declared unclean; only then is the priest to go in and examine the house. 37He is to examine the mold, and if it appears on the walls of the house as greenish or reddish depressions that seem to go deeper than the surface of the wall, 38the priest is to go out of the house to its entrance and shut the house up for seven days. 39On the seventh day the priest is to return and examine it, and if the mold has spread on the walls of the house, 40he is to order the stones with the mold in them removed and thrown into an unclean place outside the town. 41He is to have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster they scrape off dumped into an unclean place outside the town. 42Then other stones are to be brought in to replace those stones, and fresh plaster used to replaster the house. 43If the mold reappears in the house after the stones have been removed and the house scraped and replastered, 44the priest is to go and examine it, and if the mold has spread in the house, it is a destructive mold in the house; the house is unclean. 45It must be torn down — its stones, its timber, and all its plaster — and carried to an unclean place outside the town. 46Anyone who enters the house while it is shut up will be unclean until evening. 47Anyone who sleeps in the house must wash his clothes, and anyone who eats in the house must wash his clothes. 48But if the priest comes and examines it and the mold has not spread in the house after it was replastered, he is to pronounce the house clean, because the mold is gone. 49To purify the house he is to take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop. 50He is to slaughter one bird over fresh water in a clay pot. 51Then he is to take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet thread, and the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and in the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times. 52He is to purify the house with the bird’s blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet thread, 53and release the live bird outside the town into the open field. In this way he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean. 54This is the law for any defiling skin disease and sore, 55for mold in a garment or a house, 56for a swelling, a rash, or a shiny spot, 57to teach when something is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law of the defiling skin disease.”
