⁴ No one of Aaron’s offspring who has a defiling skin disease or suffers a discharge may eat of the sacred donations until he is clean. Whoever touches anything made unclean by a corpse or a man who has had an emission of semen,^(A)

The Holiness of Priests

21 The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:

“No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his relatives,^(A)

¹³ “When the one with a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, he shall count seven days for his cleansing; he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in fresh water, and he shall be clean.^{(A) 14} On the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons and come before the Lord to the entrance of the tent of meeting and give them to the priest.^{(B) 15} The priest shall offer them, one for a purification offering and the other for a burnt offering, and the priest shall make atonement on his behalf before the Lord for his discharge.^(C)

¹⁶ “If a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening.^(D)

² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them:

“When any man has a discharge from his member,^[a] his discharge makes him unclean.^{(A) 3} The uncleanness of his discharge is this: whether his member^[b] flows with its discharge or is stopped from discharging, he is unclean during the entire period his member^[c] flows or is stopped from discharging; this is his uncleanness.^[d]

³⁹ “If an animal of which you may eat dies, anyone who touches its carcass shall be unclean until the evening.

¹¹ Those who touch the dead body of any human being shall be unclean seven days.^{(A) 12} They shall purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day and so be clean, but if they do not purify themselves on the third day and on the seventh day, they will not become clean.^{(B) 13} All who touch a corpse, the body of a human being who has died, and do not purify themselves defile the tabernacle of the Lord; such persons shall be cut off from Israel. Since water for cleansing was not dashed on them, they remain unclean; their uncleanness is still on them.^(C)

¹⁴ “This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁵ And every open vessel with no cover fastened on it is unclean. ¹⁶ Whoever in the open field touches one who has been killed by a sword or who has died naturally,^[a] or a human bone, or a grave shall be unclean seven days.^(D)

¹⁹ All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the Lord I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due; it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and your descendants as well.”^(A)

⁹ This shall be yours from the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs that they render to me as a most holy thing, whether grain offering, purification offering, or guilt offering, shall belong to you and your sons.^(A)

²² He may eat the food of his God, of the most holy as well as of the holy.

Purification of the Diseased

14 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “This shall be the rule for the person with a defiling skin disease at the time of his cleansing:

“He shall be brought to the priest;^{(A) 3} the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall make an examination. If the disease is healed in the defiled person, ⁴ the priest shall command that two living clean birds and cedarwood and crimson yarn and hyssop be brought for the one who is to be cleansed.^{(B) 5} The priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh water in a clay vessel. ⁶ He shall take the living bird with the cedarwood and the crimson yarn and the hyssop and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. ⁷ He shall sprinkle it seven times upon the one who is to be cleansed of the defiling disease; then he shall pronounce him clean, and he shall let the living bird go into the open field.^{(C) 8} The one 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. After that he shall come into the camp but shall live outside his tent seven days.^{(D) 9} On the seventh day he shall shave all his hair: of head, beard, eyebrows; he shall shave all his hair. Then he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.