Laws for Cleansing Lepers

1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest, 3and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, 4the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live14:4 Or wild clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop. 5And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh14:5 Or running; Hebrew living; also verses 6, 50, 51, 52 water. 6He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. 7And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field. 8And he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but shall live outside his tent for seven days. 9And on the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair from his head, his beard, and his eyebrows. He shall shave off all his hair, and then he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.

10“And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish, and a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah14:10 An ephah was about 3/5 of a bushel or 22 litres of fine flour mixed with oil, and one log14:10 A log was about 1/3 of a quart or 0.3 liter of oil. 11And the priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed and these things before the LORD, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 12And the priest shall take one of the male lambs and offer it for a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the LORD. 13And he shall kill the lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary. For the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; it is most holy. 14The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 15Then the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand 16and dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and sprinkle some oil with his finger seven times before the LORD. 17And some of the oil that remains in his hand the priest shall put on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and 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. 18And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. Then the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD. 19The priest shall offer the sin offering, to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterwards he shall kill the burnt offering. 20And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

21“But if he is poor and cannot afford so much, then he shall take one male lamb for a guilt offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, and a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil; 22also two turtle-doves or two pigeons, whichever he can afford. One shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. 23And on the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, before the LORD. 24And the priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD. 25And he shall kill the lamb of the guilt offering. And the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 26And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand, 27and shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the LORD. 28And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, in the place where the blood of the guilt offering was put. 29And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the LORD. 30And he shall offer, of the turtle-doves or pigeons, whichever he can afford, 31one14:31 Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew afford, 31 such as he can afford, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, along with a grain offering. And the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for him who is being cleansed. 32This is the law for him in whom is a case of leprous disease, who cannot afford the offerings for his cleansing.”

Laws for Cleansing Houses

33The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 34“When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession, 35then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘There seems to me to be some case of disease in my house.’ 36Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes to examine the disease, lest all that is in the house be declared unclean. And afterwards the priest shall go in to see the house. 37And he shall examine the disease. And if the disease is in the walls of the house with greenish or reddish spots, and if it appears to be deeper than the surface, 38then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house for seven days. 39And the priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the disease has spread in the walls of the house, 40then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the disease and throw them into an unclean place outside the city. 41And he shall have the inside of the house scraped all round, and the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city. 42Then they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other plaster and plaster the house.

43“If the disease breaks out again in the house, after he has taken out the stones and scraped the house and plastered it, 44then the priest shall go and look. And if the disease has spread in the house, it is a persistent leprous disease in the house; it is unclean. 45And he shall break down the house, its stones and timber and all the plaster of the house, and he shall carry them out of the city to an unclean place. 46Moreover, whoever enters the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening, 47and whoever sleeps in the house shall wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

48“But if the priest comes and looks, and if the disease has not spread in the house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, for the disease is healed. 49And for the cleansing of the house he shall take two small birds, with cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop, 50and shall kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water 51and shall take the cedarwood and the hyssop and the scarlet yarn, along with the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the fresh water and sprinkle the house seven times. 52Thus he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the fresh water and with the live bird and with the cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn. 53And he shall let the live bird go out of the city into the open country. So he shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.”

54This is the law for any case of leprous disease: for an itch, 55for leprous disease in a garment or in a house, 56and for a swelling or an eruption or a spot, 57to show when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law for leprous disease.