Leviticus 14-15 (Contemporary English Version)

Leviticus 14

The Ceremony for People Healed of Leprosy

 ¹The LORD told Moses to say to the people:

    ^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

 ³³The LORD told Moses and Aaron to say to the people:

    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.

   

Leviticus 15

Sexual Uncleanness

 ¹The LORD told Moses and Aaron ²to say to the community of Israel:

   Any man with an infected penis is unclean, ³whether it is stopped up or keeps dripping. ⁴Anything that he rests on or sits on is also unclean, ^5-7and if you touch either these or him, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening.

    ⁸If you are spit on by the man, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening. ^9-10Any saddle or seat on which the man sits is unclean. And if you touch or carry either of these, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening. ¹¹If the man touches you without first washing his hands, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening. ¹²Any clay pot that he touches must be destroyed, and any wooden bowl that he touches must be washed.

    ¹³Seven days after the man gets well, he will be considered clean, if he washes his clothes and takes a bath in spring water. ¹⁴On the eighth day he must bring either two doves or two pigeons to the front of my sacred tent and give them to a priest. ¹⁵The priest will offer one of the birds as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me, ^[h] then I will consider the man completely clean. ¹⁶Any man who has a flow of semen must take a bath, but he still remains unclean until evening. ¹⁷If the semen touches anything made of cloth or leather, these must be washed, but they still remain unclean until evening. ¹⁸After having sex, both the man and the woman must take a bath, but they still remain unclean until evening.

    ¹⁹When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean for seven days, and if you touch her, you must take a bath, but you remain unclean until evening. ^20-23Anything that she rests on or sits on is also unclean, and if you touch either of these, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening. ²⁴Any man who has sex with her during this time becomes unclean for seven days, and anything he rests on is also unclean.

    ²⁵Any woman who has a flow of blood outside her regular monthly period is unclean until it stops, just as she is during her monthly period. ²⁶Anything that she rests on or sits on during this time is also unclean, just as it would be during her period. ²⁷If you touch either of these, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening.

    ²⁸Seven days after the woman gets well, she will be considered clean. ²⁹On the eighth day, she must bring either two doves or two pigeons to the front of my sacred tent and give them to a priest. ³⁰He will offer one of the birds as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me; then I will consider the woman completely clean.

    ³¹When any of you are unclean, you must stay away from the rest of the community of Israel. Otherwise, my sacred tent will become unclean, and the whole nation will die.

    ^32-33These are the things you men must do if you become unclean because of an infected penis or if you have a flow of semen. And these are the things you women must do when you become unclean either because of your monthly period or an unusual flow of blood. This is also what you men must do if you have sex with a woman who is unclean.