Statute for Cleansing a Leprous House

³³ Yahweh further spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying:

³⁴ “^(A)When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you for a possession, and I put a mark of leprosy on a house in the land of your possession, ³⁵ then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘Something like ^(B)a mark of leprosy has become visible to me in the house.’ ³⁶ The priest shall then command that they empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the mark, so that everything in the house need not become unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to look at the house. ³⁷ So he shall look at the mark, and if the mark on the walls of the house has greenish or reddish depressions and appears deeper than the surface of the wall, ³⁸ then the priest shall come out of the house, to the ^[a]doorway, and ^[b]put the house under isolation for seven days. ³⁹ And the priest shall return on the seventh day and look again. If the mark has indeed spread in the walls of the house, ⁴⁰ then the priest shall command them to tear out the stones with the mark in them and throw them away ^[c]at an unclean place outside the city. ⁴¹ And he shall have the house scraped all around ^[d]inside, and they shall pour out the plaster that they scrape off at an unclean place outside the city. ⁴² Then they shall take other stones and replace those stones, and he shall take other plaster and replaster the house.

⁴³ “If, however, the mark breaks out again in the house after he has torn out the stones and scraped the house, and after it has been replastered, ⁴⁴ then the priest shall come in and look again. If he sees that the mark has indeed spread in the house, it is ^(C)a ^[e]leprous malignancy in the house; it is unclean. ⁴⁵ He shall therefore tear down the house, its stones and its timbers and all the plaster of the house, and he shall take them outside the city to an ^(D)unclean place. ⁴⁶ Moreover, whoever goes into the house during the time that he has ^[f]put it under isolation becomes ^(E)unclean until evening. ⁴⁷ Likewise, whoever lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

⁴⁸ “If, on the other hand, the priest comes in and looks again, and the mark has not indeed spread in the house after the house has been replastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean because the mark has ^[g]not reappeared. ⁴⁹ To cleanse the house then, he shall take ^(F)two birds and cedar wood and a ^[h]scarlet string and hyssop, ⁵⁰ and he shall slaughter the one bird in an earthenware vessel over ^[i]running water. ⁵¹ Then he shall take the cedar wood and the ^(G)hyssop and the ^[j]scarlet string, with the live bird, and he shall dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird as well as in the ^[k]running water, and he shall sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵² He shall thus cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the ^[l]running water, along with the live bird and with the cedar wood and with the hyssop and with the ^[m]scarlet string. ⁵³ However, he shall let the live bird go free outside the city into the open field. So he shall make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.”

⁵⁴ This is the law for any mark of leprosy—even for a ^(H)scale, ⁵⁵ and for the ^(I)leprous garment or house, ⁵⁶ and ^(J)for a swelling and for a scab and for a bright spot— ⁵⁷ to instruct ^[n]when they are unclean and ^[o]when they are clean. This is the law of leprosy.