Instructions for Cleansing Houses

³³ Then^[a] Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ³⁴ “When you come into the land of Canaan, which I am about to give to you as your possession, and I put mildew^[b] in a house in the land of your possession, ³⁵ then^[c] the one who owns the house^[d] shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘It appears to me that an infection is in the house.’ ³⁶ And the priest shall issue a command, and they shall clear out the house before the priest comes to examine the infection, so that^[e] all that is in the house might not become unclean; and afterward^[f] the priest shall go to examine the house. ³⁷ And he shall examine the infection, and if^[g] the infection on the house’s wall has yellowish-green or reddish spots and its appearance is deeper than the surface of^[h] the wall, ³⁸ then^[i] the priest shall go out from the house to the house’s entrance, and he shall confine^[j] the house for seven days. ³⁹ And the priest shall return on the seventh day, and he shall examine the infection,^[k] and if^[l] the infection has spread on the house’s wall, ⁴⁰ the priest shall issue a command and they shall remove the stones on which is the infection, and they shall throw them outside the city^[m] on an unclean place. ⁴¹ Then^[n] they^[o] shall scrape off the plaster^[p] from all around the house, and they shall pour out the plaster,^[q] which they scraped off, outside the city^[r] on an unclean place. ⁴² And they shall take other stones, and they shall put^[s] them in place of those stones, and they^[t] shall take other plaster,^[u] and they^[v] shall replaster^[w] the house.

⁴³ “But^[x] if the infection should return and it breaks out in the house after they^[y] have removed the stones and after scraping off the plaster^[z] of the house and after it has been replastered,^{[aa] 44} then^[ab] the priest shall come, and he shall examine the infection,^[ac] and if^[ad] the infection has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew^[ae] in the house—it is unclean. ⁴⁵ So^[af] he shall break down the house, its stones and its wood and all of the house’s plaster,^[ag] and he shall bring it all^[ah] outside the city^[ai] to an unclean place. ⁴⁶ And the person who enters into the house during all the days that he^[aj] confined^[ak] it shall become unclean until the evening. ⁴⁷ And the person who sleeps in the house must wash his garments, and the person who eats in the house shall wash his garments.

⁴⁸ “And if the priest comes again and examines the house^[al] and if^[am] the infection has not spread in the house after being replastered,^[an] then^[ao] the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the infection is healed. ⁴⁹ And he shall take two birds and cedar wood^[ap] and a crimson thread^[aq] and hyssop to cleanse the house; ⁵⁰ and he shall slaughter the first bird over fresh water on a clay vessel. ⁵¹ Then^[ar] he shall take the cedar wood^[as] and the hyssop and the crimson thread^[at] and the living bird, and he shall dip them in the slaughtered bird’s blood and in the fresh water, and he shall spatter them^[au] on the house seven times. ⁵² Thus^[av] he shall purify the house with the bird’s blood and with the fresh water and with the living bird and with the cedar wood^[aw] and with the hyssop and with the crimson thread.^{[ax] 53} And he shall send the living bird outside the city^[ay] into the open field;^[az] and so he shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.

⁵⁴ “This is the instruction for any infectious skin disease and for the diseased area of skin, ⁵⁵ and for a mildew^[ba] of the garment and for the house, ⁵⁶ and for the swelling and for the epidermal eruption and for the spot, ⁵⁷ to teach when something is unclean and when something is clean.^[bb] This is the regulation of the infectious skin disease.”