Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Eternal One: ³⁴ When you go into the land of Canaan—the land which I am giving you as your own—and I contaminate or infect one of the houses in your land, ³⁵ the owner of the house must go inform the priest, “I have just noticed a spot in my house.” ³⁶ The priest must then order the person to remove all the contents from the house before he comes to examine the spot. This saves the person from possibly having everything in the house declared unclean. After this is done, the priest can go inside and inspect the spot. ³⁷ If he sees that the spot has greenish or reddish depressions and appears to go deep beneath the surface of the wall, ³⁸ then the priest will exit the house through the door and quarantine the house for seven days. ³⁹ When the seventh day arrives, the priest will go back into the house and inspect it again. If the discolored spot has shown up on other places on the walls, ⁴⁰ the priest will direct them to remove all the stones that have any suspicious spots on them and discard them in the impure refuse pile outside the camp. ⁴¹ They are also to scrape off any suspicious-looking plaster and discard it in the impure refuse pile outside the camp. ⁴² Then they are to go out and find other stones to replace the ones they removed and then replaster the walls.

⁴³ If there is another outbreak after they have removed all the suspicious-looking stones and plaster and then replastered the walls, ⁴⁴ the priest must enter the house and inspect it once again. If he finds that the spots have reappeared, then the house has a chronic outbreak and is unclean. ⁴⁵ The owner must demolish the house and take all its stones, wood, and plaster to the impure refuse pile outside the camp. ⁴⁶ Whoever enters the house while the house is quarantined by the priest will become unclean until dusk. ⁴⁷ Also anyone who sleeps or eats inside the house must wash their clothes.

⁴⁸ If the priest enters the house to inspect it and the spot has not reappeared after the walls have been rebuilt and replastered, the priest will declare the house clean because the spot has not returned. ⁴⁹ To cleanse the house from its contamination, the priest must take two birds, some cedar wood, scarlet string, and hyssop, ⁵⁰ and slaughter one bird in a clay jar over running water. ⁵¹ He will then dip the cedar wood, hyssop, scarlet string, and the living bird in the blood of the first bird and in running water and sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵² This is how the priest will cleanse the house from the outbreak using the blood of the sacrificed bird, running water, the living bird, cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet string. ⁵³ He will set the living bird free over a wide, open field outside the camp. In this way, the priest will cover over the impurity of the house, and the house will be declared clean.