Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

(RY: vi, LY: iv) ³³ Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, ³⁴ “When you have entered the land of Kena‘an which I am giving you as a possession, and I put an infection of tzara‘at in a house in the land that you possess, ³⁵ then the owner of the house is to come and tell the cohen, ‘It seems to me that there may be an infection in the house.’ ³⁶ The cohen is to order the house emptied before he goes in to inspect the infection, so that everything in the house won’t be made unclean; afterwards, the cohen is to enter and inspect the house. ³⁷ He will examine the infection; and if he sees that the infection is in the walls of the house, with greenish or reddish depressions that seem to go in deeper than the surface of the wall, ³⁸ he is to go out of the house to its door and seal up the house for seven days. ³⁹ The cohen will come again on the seventh day and examine the house; if he sees that the infection has spread over its walls, ⁴⁰ he is to order them to remove the infected stones and throw them into some unclean place outside the city. ⁴¹ Next, he is to have the inside of the house thoroughly scraped, and the scraped-off plaster is to be discarded outside the city in an unclean place. ⁴² Finally, other stones must be set in the place of the first stones and other plaster used to replaster the house. ⁴³ If the infection returns and breaks out in the house after the stones have been removed and the house scraped and plastered; ⁴⁴ then the cohen is to enter and examine it. If he sees that the infection has spread in the house, it is a contagious tzara‘at in the house; it is unclean. ⁴⁵ He must break down the house and take its stones, timber and plaster out of the city to an unclean place. ⁴⁶ Moreover, whoever enters the house at any time while it is sealed up will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁷ Whoever lies down or eats in the house must wash his clothes. ⁴⁸ If the cohen enters, examines and sees that the infection has not spread in the house since it was plastered; then he is to declare the house clean; because the infection is cured.

⁴⁹ “To purify the house, he is to take two birds, cedar-wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop leaves. ⁵⁰ He is to slaughter one of the birds in a clay pot over running water. ⁵¹ He is to take the cedar-wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn and the live bird and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵² He will purify the house with the blood of the bird, the running water, the live bird, the cedar-wood, the hyssop and the scarlet yarn. ⁵³ But he is to set the live bird free outside the city in an open field; thus will he make atonement for the house; and it will be clean.

¹³ Follow the pattern of the sound teachings you have heard from me, with trust and the love which is yours in the Messiah Yeshua. ¹⁴ Keep safe the great treasure that has been entrusted to you, with the help of the Ruach HaKodesh, who lives in us.

¹⁵ You know that everyone in the province of Asia turned away from me, including Phygelus and Ermogenes. ¹⁶ May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he was often a comfort to me and was not ashamed of my being in prison. ¹⁷ On the contrary, when he came to Rome, he diligently searched for me and found me. ¹⁸ May the Lord grant it to him to find mercy from Adonai on that Day. And you know very well how much he helped me in Ephesus.