Leviticus 14

Cleansing after a Serious Skin Disease

1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“This shall be the law for a person with a serious skin disease on the day of cleansing. The person shall be brought to the priest, 3and the priest shall go outside the camp. The priest shall examine the person. If the diseased condition has been healed, 4the priest shall command that two living clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop be taken for the one who is to be cleansed. 5The priest shall command that one bird be slaughtered in an earthen vessel over fresh water. 6As for the living bird, he shall take it together with the cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird slaughtered over the fresh water. 7He shall sprinkle the one being cleansed seven times, pronounce that person clean, and let the living bird go free into the open field.

8The one being cleansed shall wash their clothes, shave off all their hair, and bathe in water; then the person shall be clean. Afterward that person may enter the camp but shall live outside the tent for seven days. 9On the seventh day the person shall shave all the hair of the head, beard, and eyebrows—indeed, all the hair. The person shall wash their clothes and bathe the body in water and shall be clean.

Offerings on the Eighth Day

10On the eighth day the person shall 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 as a grain offering, and one log of oil. 11The priest who performs the cleansing shall set the person being cleansed and these things before the LORD at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. 12The priest shall take one male lamb and present it as a guilt offering together with the log of oil, and elevate them as an elevation offering before the LORD. 13He shall slaughter the male lamb in the place where the sin offering and burnt offering are slaughtered, in the holy place, for like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest. It is most holy.

14The priest shall 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 the right hand, and on the big toe of the right foot. 15The priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. 16The priest shall dip his right finger in the oil in his left palm and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the LORD. 17The priest shall put some of the remaining oil in his hand on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of the right foot, over the blood of the guilt offering. 18The rest of the oil in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of the one being cleansed. The priest shall make atonement for that person before the LORD. 19The priest shall prepare the sin offering and make atonement for the one being cleansed from uncleanness. Afterward he shall slaughter the burnt offering. 20The priest shall offer the burnt offering and grain offering on the altar. The priest shall make atonement for the person, and that person shall be clean.

Provision for One Who Is Poor

21But if the person is poor and cannot afford so much, then the person shall take one male lamb as a guilt offering to be elevated, to make atonement, one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and a log of oil, 22and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, according to what the person can afford, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. 23On the eighth day the person shall bring them for cleansing to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. 24The priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering and the log of oil and elevate them as an elevation offering before the LORD. 25He shall slaughter the lamb of the guilt offering, and the priest shall take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of the right foot. 26The priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand, 27and with his right finger sprinkle some of the oil in his left hand seven times before the LORD. 28The priest shall put some of the oil in his hand on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of the right foot, in the place where the blood of the guilt offering was put. 29The rest of the oil in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of the one being cleansed, to make atonement before the LORD. 30The person shall offer one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, according to what can be afforded, 31one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. The priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the one being cleansed. 32This is the law for one who has a serious skin disease and cannot afford the full offering for cleansing.”

Diseased Conditions in Houses

33The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 34“When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you as a possession, and I put a diseased condition in a house in the land of your possession, 35the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘Something like a diseased condition has appeared to me in the house.’ 36The priest shall command that the house be emptied before he enters to examine the condition, so that everything in the house does not become unclean. Afterward the priest shall go in to examine the house. 37He shall examine the affected area. If the affected area in the walls of the house consists of greenish or reddish depressions that appear deeper than the surface of the wall, 38the priest shall go out of the house to its entrance and close the house for seven days. 39The priest shall return on the seventh day and examine it. If the affected area has spread in the walls of the house, 40the priest shall command that the stones in which the condition appears be removed and thrown into an unclean place outside the city. 41He shall have the inside of the house scraped all around, and they shall pour the plaster they scrape off into an unclean place outside the city. 42They shall take other stones and put them in place of those stones, take other plaster, and replaster the house.

43If the diseased condition returns and breaks out in the house after the stones have been removed, the house scraped, and it replastered, 44the priest shall come and examine it. If the condition has spread in the house, it is a destructive diseased condition in the house; it is unclean. 45The house shall be torn down—its stones, timber, and all its plaster—and carried outside the city to an unclean place. 46Whoever enters the house during all the days it is closed shall be unclean until evening. 47Whoever lies down in the house shall wash their clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash their clothes.

Cleansing a House

48But if the priest comes and examines it and the condition has not spread in the house after the house was replastered, the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the condition is healed. 49To cleanse the house, he shall take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop. 50He shall slaughter one bird in an earthen vessel over fresh water. 51He shall take the cedar wood, hyssop, scarlet yarn, and living bird, dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and in the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times. 52He shall cleanse the house with the bird’s blood, the fresh water, the living bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet yarn. 53Then he shall let the living bird go free outside the city into the open field. Thus he shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.

Summary of the Law

54This is the law for every serious skin disease and itch, 55for a diseased condition in a garment or a house, 56for a swelling, scab, or bright spot, 57to teach when something is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law concerning serious diseased conditions.