Laws for Cleansing Lepers

14 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. ^(A)He shall be brought to the priest, ³ and the priest shall go ^(B)out of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, ⁴ the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live^[a] clean birds and ^(C)cedarwood and ^(D)scarlet yarn and ^(E)hyssop. ⁵ And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh^[b] water. ⁶ He 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. ⁷ And he shall ^(F)sprinkle it ^(G)seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall ^(H)let the living bird go ^(I)into the open field. ⁸ And he who is to be cleansed ^(J)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 ^(K)live outside his tent seven days. ⁹ And ^(L)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 ^(M)shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.

¹⁰ “And on the eighth day he ^(N)shall take two male lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish, and a ^(O)grain offering of three tenths of an ephah^[c] of fine flour mixed with oil, and one log^[d] of oil. ¹¹ And 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. ¹² And the priest shall take one of the male lambs and ^(P)offer it for a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, and ^(Q)wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. ¹³ And he shall kill the lamb ^(R)in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary. For ^(S)the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; ^(T)it is most holy. ¹⁴ The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it ^(U)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. ¹⁵ Then the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand ¹⁶ and 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. ¹⁷ And 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. ¹⁸ And 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. ^(V)Then the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord. ¹⁹ The priest shall offer the sin offering, to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. ²⁰ And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the ^(W)grain offering on the altar. ^(X)Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

²¹ “But ^(Y)if he is poor and cannot afford so much, then he shall take one male lamb for a guilt offering ^(Z)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; ^22 (AA)also two turtledoves or two pigeons, whichever he can afford. The one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. ^23 (AB)And 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. ^24 (AC)And 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. ²⁵ And he shall kill the lamb of the guilt offering. ^(AD)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. ²⁶ And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand, ²⁷ and shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord. ²⁸ And 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. ²⁹ And 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. ³⁰ And he shall offer, of the ^(AE)turtledoves or pigeons, whichever he can afford, ³¹ one^[e] for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, along with a grain offering. ^(AF)And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for him who is being cleansed. ³² This is the law for him in whom is a case of leprous disease, who cannot afford ^(AG)the offerings for his cleansing.”

Laws for Cleansing Houses

³³ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ³⁴ “When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you ^(AH)for a possession, and I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession, ³⁵ then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘There seems to me to be some case of ^(AI)disease in my house.’ ³⁶ Then 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 afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. ³⁷ And 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, ³⁸ then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days. ³⁹ And the priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the disease has spread in the walls of the house, ⁴⁰ then 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. ⁴¹ And he shall have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city. ⁴² Then 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, ⁴⁴ then the priest shall go and look. And if the disease has spread in the house, it is a ^(AJ)persistent leprous disease in the house; it is unclean. ⁴⁵ And 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. ⁴⁶ Moreover, whoever enters the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening, ⁴⁷ and whoever sleeps in the house ^(AK)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. ⁴⁹ And for the ^(AL)cleansing of the house he shall take ^(AM)two small birds, with cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop, ⁵⁰ and shall kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water ⁵¹ and 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. ⁵² Thus 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. ⁵³ And he shall let the live bird go out of the city ^(AN)into the open country. So he shall ^(AO)make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.”

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

O Lord My God, You Are Very Great

David's Census

24 ^(A)(B)Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ^(C)“Go, number Israel and Judah.” ² So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army,^[a] who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, ^(D)from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.” ³ But Joab said to the king, ^(E)“May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” ⁴ But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan and began from ^(F)Aroer,^[b] and from the city that is in the middle of the ^(G)valley, toward Gad and on to ^(H)Jazer. ⁶ Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites;^[c] and they came to Dan, and from Dan^[d] they went around to ^(I)Sidon, ⁷ and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the ^(J)Hivites and ^(K)Canaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba. ⁸ So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹ And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men ^(L)who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.

The Lord's Judgment of David's Sin

¹⁰ But ^(M)David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, ^(N)“I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done ^(O)very foolishly.” ¹¹ And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to ^(P)the prophet Gad, David's ^(Q)seer, saying, ¹² “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer^[e] you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” ¹³ So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall ^(R)three^[f] years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” ¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, ^(S)for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

^15 (T)So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from ^(U)Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men. ¹⁶ And when ^(V)the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem ^(W)to destroy it, ^(X)the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel ^(Y)who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And ^(Z)the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of ^(AA)Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷ Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house.”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸ And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of ^(AB)Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up at Gad's word, as the Lord commanded. ²⁰ And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. ²¹ And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague ^(AC)may be averted from the people.” ²² Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the ^(AD)threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³ All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God ^(AE)accept you.” ²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels^[g] of silver. ²⁵ And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ^(AF)So the Lord responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.