Lê-vi Ký 14

Cleansing from serious skin disease

¹The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ²“This is the law for a person with a serious skin disease, for the day they are to be made clean. They are to be brought to the priest. ³The priest is to go out of the camp and look the person over. If the sore of the serious skin disease has healed, ⁴the priest is to have someone take, for the one being cleansed, two clean birds that are alive, with some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop.^{a 5}At the priest’s order one of the birds is to be slaughtered over fresh water held in a clay pot. ⁶Then he is to take the live bird and the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them all, live bird too, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. ⁷He is to sprinkle the one being cleansed from the serious skin disease seven times and declare them clean. Then he is to set the live bird free in the open country. ⁸Then the one being cleansed is to wash their clothes, shave off all their hair, and bathe in water, and so become clean. After that they may enter the camp, but for seven days they are to live outside their own tent. ⁹On the seventh day they are to shave again, all of it: the hair of the head, the beard, the eyebrows, every hair on the body. They are to wash their clothes and bathe their body in water, and they will be clean. ¹⁰On the eighth day they are to take two male lambs without defect and one year-old ewe lamb without defect, with about 6 quarts of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and about a third of a quart of oil.^{b 11}The priest who is declaring them clean is to set the person being cleansed, and these offerings, before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ¹²The priest is to take one of the male lambs and present it as a guilt offering, together with the log of oil, and lift them up and wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. ¹³He is to slaughter the lamb at the place in the holy area where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered. The guilt offering goes to the priest, just as the sin offering does; it is most holy. ¹⁴The priest is to take some of the guilt offering’s blood and put it on the right earlobe of the person being cleansed, on their right thumb, and on the big toe of their right foot. ¹⁵Next the priest is to take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. ¹⁶The priest is to dip his right forefinger into the oil in his left palm, and with his finger sprinkle some of the oil seven times before the LORD. ¹⁷Some of the oil still in his palm the priest is to put on the right earlobe of the person being cleansed, on their right thumb, and on the big toe of their right foot, over the blood of the guilt offering. ¹⁸What is left of the oil in the priest’s palm he is to put on the head of the person being cleansed. So the priest will make atonement for them before the LORD. ¹⁹The priest is then to offer the sin offering and make atonement for the person being cleansed from their uncleanness. After that he is to slaughter the burnt offering. ²⁰He is to offer up the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. So the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be clean.

Cleansing for someone who is poor

²¹If they are poor and cannot afford this much, they are to take one male lamb as a guilt offering to be waved, to make atonement for them, with about 2 quarts of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and about a third of a quart of oil, ²²and also two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whichever they can afford, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. ²³On the eighth day they are to bring them for their cleansing to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting, before the LORD. ²⁴The priest is to take the lamb for the guilt offering and the log of oil and lift them up and wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. ²⁵He is to slaughter the lamb of the guilt offering, take some of its blood, and put it on the right earlobe of the person being cleansed, on their right thumb, and on the big toe of their right foot. ²⁶The priest is to pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand. ²⁷With his right forefinger he is to sprinkle some of the oil in his left palm seven times before the LORD. ²⁸The priest is to put some of the oil in his palm on the right earlobe of the person being cleansed, on their right thumb, and on the big toe of their right foot, the same places where the blood of the guilt offering was put. ²⁹What is left of the oil in the priest’s palm he is to put on the head of the person being cleansed, to make atonement for them before the LORD. ³⁰Then he is to offer the turtledoves or the young pigeons, whichever the person can afford, ³¹the means they have: one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, along with the grain offering. So the priest will make atonement for the person being cleansed before the LORD. ³²This is the law for anyone who has had a serious skin disease and cannot afford the usual offerings for their cleansing.”

Mold in a house

³³The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, ³⁴“When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you to own, and I put a patch of mold in a house in the land you own,^{c 35}the owner of the house is to come and tell the priest, ‘I have seen what looks like a patch of mold in my house.’ ³⁶The priest is to order the house emptied before he goes in to examine the patch, so that nothing in the house becomes unclean. After that the priest is to go in and look at the house. ³⁷He is to look at the patch. If it is in the walls of the house, as greenish or reddish hollows that look deeper than the surface of the wall,^{d 38}the priest is to go out of the house to its doorway and close the house up for seven days. ³⁹On the seventh day the priest is to come back and look. If the patch has spread in the walls of the house, ⁴⁰the priest is to order the stones with the patch on them pulled out and thrown into an unclean place outside the town. ⁴¹He is to have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster that is scraped off is to be dumped in an unclean place outside the town. ⁴²Then they are to take other stones and put them in place of the old ones, and new plaster is to be used to replaster the house. ⁴³If the patch comes back and breaks out again in the house after the stones have been pulled out and the house scraped and replastered, ⁴⁴the priest is to come and look. If the patch has spread in the house, it is a spreading mold in the house. The house is unclean. ⁴⁵The house must be torn down, its stones, its timbers and all its plaster, and everything carried out of the town to an unclean place. ⁴⁶Anyone who goes into the house while it is shut up will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁷Anyone who sleeps in the house must wash their clothes, and anyone who eats in the house must wash their clothes. ⁴⁸But if the priest comes and looks and the patch has not spread in the house after it was replastered, he is to declare the house clean, because the mold is gone. ⁴⁹To purify the house he is to take two birds, with some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop. ⁵⁰He is to slaughter one of the birds over fresh water held in a clay pot. ⁵¹Then he is to take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn and the live bird, dip them in the blood of the dead bird and in the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵²So he will purify the house with the bird’s blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet yarn. ⁵³He is to set the live bird free outside the town in the open country. So he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean. ⁵⁴This is the law for every kind of serious skin disease, for a scaly itch, ⁵⁵for mold in clothing and in a house, ⁵⁶and for a swelling, a scab or a bright spot, ⁵⁷for teaching which day a thing is unclean and which day it is clean. This is the law for serious skin disease and mold.”