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Leviticus 14

The Ceremony for People Healed of Leprosy

    ^2-3After you think you are healed of leprosy, ^[a] you must ask for a priest to come outside the camp and examine you. And if you are well, ⁴he will have someone bring out two live birds that are acceptable for sacrifice, together with a stick of cedar wood, a piece of red yarn, and a branch from a hyssop plant. ⁵The priest will have someone kill one of the birds over a clay pot of spring water. ⁶Then he will dip the other bird, the cedar, the red yarn, and the hyssop in the blood of the dead bird. ⁷Next, he will sprinkle you seven times with the blood and say, " You are now clean." Finally, he will release the bird and let it fly away. ⁸After this you must wash your clothes, shave your entire body, and take a bath before you are completely clean. You may move back into camp, but you must not enter your tent for seven days. ⁹Then you must once again shave your head, face, and eyebrows, as well as the hair on the rest of your body. Finally, wash your clothes and take a bath, and you will be completely clean.

    ¹⁰On the eighth day you must bring to the priest two rams and a year-old female lamb that have nothing wrong with them; also bring a half pint of olive oil and six pounds of your finest flour mixed with oil. ¹¹Then the priest will present you and your offerings to me at the entrance to my sacred tent. ¹²There he will offer one of the rams, together with the pint of oil, as a sacrifice to make things right. ^[b] He will also lift them up ^[c] to show that they are dedicated to me. ¹³This sacrifice is very holy. It belongs to the priest and must be killed in the same place where animals are killed as sacrifices for sins and as sacrifices to please me. ^{[d] 14}The priest will smear some of the blood from this sacrifice on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot. ¹⁵He will then pour some of the olive oil into the palm of his left hand, ¹⁶dip a finger of his right hand into the oil, and sprinkle some of it seven times toward the sacred tent. ¹⁷Next, he will smear some of the oil on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot, ^18-20and pour the rest of the oil from his palm on your head. Then he will offer the other two animals--one as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me, together with a grain sacrifice. After this you will be completely clean.

    ²¹If you are poor and cannot afford to offer this much, you may offer a ram as a sacrifice to make things right, together with a half pint of olive oil and two pounds of flour mixed with oil as a grain sacrifice. The priest will then lift these up ^[e] to dedicate them to me. ²²Depending on what you can afford, you must also offer either two doves or two pigeons, one as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me. ²³The priest will offer these to me in front of the sacred tent on the eighth day.

    ^24-25The priest will kill this ram for the sacrifice to make things right, and he will lift it up ^[f] with the olive oil in dedication to me. Then he will smear some of the blood on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot.

    ²⁶The priest will pour some of the olive oil into the palm of his left hand, ²⁷then dip a finger of his right hand in the oil and sprinkle some of it seven times toward the sacred tent. ²⁸He will smear some of the oil on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot, just as he did with the blood of the sacrifice to make things right. ^29-31And he will pour the rest of the oil from his palm on your head.

   Then, depending on what you can afford, he will offer either the doves or the pigeons together with the grain sacrifice. One of the birds is the sacrifice for sin, and the other is the sacrifice to please me. After this you will be completely clean.

    ³²These are the things you must do if you have leprosy and cannot afford the usual sacrifices to make you clean.

When Mildew Is in a House

    ³⁴After I have given you the land of Canaan as your permanent possession, here is what you must do, if I ever put mildew ^[g] on the walls of any of your homes. ³⁵First, you must say to a priest, " I think mildew is on the wall of my house."

    ³⁶The priest will reply, " Empty the house before I inspect it, or else everything in it will be unclean."

    ³⁷If the priest discovers greenish or reddish spots that go deeper than the surface of the walls, ³⁸he will have the house closed for seven days. ³⁹Then he will return and check to see if the mildew has spread. ^40-41If so, he will have someone scrape the plaster from the walls, remove the filthy stones, then haul everything off and dump it in an unclean place outside the town. ⁴²Afterwards the wall must be repaired with new stones and fresh plaster.

    ⁴³If the mildew appears a second time, ⁴⁴the priest will come and say, " This house is unclean. It's covered with mildew that can't be removed." ⁴⁵Then he will have the house torn down and every bit of wood, stone, and plaster hauled off to an unclean place outside the town. ⁴⁶Meanwhile, if any of you entered the house while it was closed, you will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁷And if you either slept or ate in the house, you must wash your clothes.

    ⁴⁸On the other hand, if the priest discovers that mildew hasn't reappeared after the house was newly plastered, he will say, " This house is clean--the mildew has gone." ⁴⁹Then, to show that the house is now clean, he will get two birds, a stick of cedar wood, a piece of red yarn, and a branch from a hyssop plant and bring them to the house. ⁵⁰He will kill one of the birds over a clay pot of spring water ^51-52and let its blood drain into the pot. Then he will dip the cedar, the hyssop, the yarn, and the other bird into the mixture of blood and water. Next, he will sprinkle the house seven times with the mixture, then the house will be completely clean. ⁵³Finally, he will release the bird and let it fly away, ending the ceremony for purifying the house.

    ^54-57These are the things you must do if you discover that you are unclean because of an itch or a sore, or that your clothing or house is unclean because of mildew.

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⁵¹One of Jesus' followers pulled out a sword. He struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

    ⁵²But Jesus told him, "Put your sword away. Anyone who lives by fighting will die by fighting. ⁵³Don't you know that I could ask my Father, and right away he would send me more than twelve armies of angels? ⁵⁴But then, how could the words of the Scriptures come true, which say that this must happen?"

    ⁵⁵Jesus said to the mob, "Why do you come with swords and clubs to arrest me like a criminal? Day after day I sat and taught in the temple, and you didn't arrest me. ⁵⁶But all this happened, so that what the prophets wrote would come true."

   All of Jesus' disciples left him and ran away.

Jesus Is Questioned by the Council

(Mark 14.53-65; Luke 22.54,55,63-71; John 18.13,14,19-24)

    ⁵⁹The chief priests and the whole council wanted to put Jesus to death. So they tried to find some people who would tell lies about him in court. ^{[a] 60}But they could not find any, even though many did come and tell lies. At last, two men came forward ⁶¹and said, "This man claimed that he would tear down God's temple and build it again in three days." ⁶²The high priest stood up and asked Jesus, "Why don't you say something in your own defense? Don't you hear the charges they are making against you?" ⁶³But Jesus did not answer. So the high priest said, "With the living God looking on, you must tell the truth. Tell us, are you the Messiah, the Son of God?" ^{[b] 64}"That is what you say!" Jesus answered. "But I tell all of you,

   `Soon you will see

   the Son of Man

   sitting at the right side ^[c] of God All-Powerful

   and coming on the clouds

   of heaven.' "

    ⁶⁵The high priest then tore his robe and said, "This man claims to be God! We don't need any more witnesses! You have heard what he said. ⁶⁶What do you think?"

   They answered, "He is guilty and deserves to die!" ⁶⁷Then they spit in his face and hit him with their fists. Others slapped him ⁶⁸and said, "You think you are the Messiah! So tell us who hit you!"

Peter Says He Doesn't Know Jesus

(Mark 14.66-72; Luke 22.56-62; John 18.15-18,25-27)

    ⁷⁰But in front of everyone Peter said, "That isn't so! I don't know what you are talking about!"

    ⁷¹When Peter had gone out to the gate, another servant girl saw him and said to some people there, "This man was with Jesus from Nazareth."

    ⁷²Again Peter denied it, and this time he swore, "I don't even know that man!"

    ⁷³A little while later some people standing there walked over to Peter and said, "We know that you are one of them. We can tell it because you talk like someone from Galilee."

    ⁷⁴Peter began to curse and swear, "I don't know that man!"

   Right then a rooster crowed, ⁷⁵and Peter remembered that Jesus had said, "Before a rooster crows, you will say three times that you don't know me." Then Peter went out and cried hard.