Infected Dwellings

³³ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: ³⁴ “When you enter the land of Canaan that I’m about to give you as your own possession, and if I put a contagion in a house in the land that you possess, ³⁵ then the owner of the house is to approach the priest and tell him, ‘There appears to be a contagion in the house.’

³⁶ “The priest is to command that the house be cleared before he^[a] comes to examine the contagion so that not everything in the house becomes unclean. After this,^[b] the priest is to enter the house and examine it. ³⁷ He is to determine if the contagion is indeed on the walls of the house, with greenish or reddish streaks, and to determine if it appears to be deeper than the surface of the wall. ³⁸ The priest is to leave through the entrance to the house and seal the house for seven days. ³⁹ He is to return after seven days to examine it. If the contagion has spread to the walls of the house, ⁴⁰ then the priest is to command that they take out the contaminated stones and discard them in an unclean place outside the city.

⁴¹ “Now as for the house, they are to scrape off inside and outside the house and then discard the torn out plaster in an unclean place outside the city. ⁴² They are then to take other stones and bring them to replace those stones. Lastly, they are to replaster the house.”

Destruction of Infected Dwellings

⁴³ “If the contagion returns and spreads throughout the house after the stones have been removed, after the house has been scraped out, and after it has been re-coated, ⁴⁴ and the priest comes, undertakes an examination, and determines that the contagion has spread in the house, it’s a chronic fungal infection in the house. It’s unclean. ⁴⁵ He is to pull down the house, its stones, its lumber, and all the plaster on the house, and discard them in an unclean place outside the city. ⁴⁶ Moreover, whoever enters the house during the time it was isolated is to be considered unclean until the evening. ⁴⁷ Whoever has slept in the house is to wash his clothes, along with whoever has eaten in the house.

⁴⁸ “But if the priest comes in to conduct an examination and determines that the contagion has not spread throughout the house after the house has been repaired, then the priest may declare the house clean, because the contagion has been cleansed. ⁴⁹ In order to cleanse the house, he is to take two birds, some cedar wood, two crimson threads, and some hyssop. ⁵⁰ Then he is to slaughter one bird on an earthen vessel over flowing water. ⁵¹ He is to take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the two crimson threads, and the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird over flowing water. Then he is to sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵² He is to clean the house with the blood of the bird over flowing water, including cleansing^[c] the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the crimson thread. ⁵³ Then he is to send the bird away, outside the city, facing the fields, to make atonement for the house. Then it is to be considered clean.

⁵⁴ “This is the law for every contagion of infectious skin disease and scabs, ⁵⁵ for fungal infections on clothing or in a house, ⁵⁶ and for swelling of the skin, scabs, and bright spots, ⁵⁷ to distinguish when^[d] it’s unclean and clean. This is the law for infectious skin diseases.”