Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 111^[a]

Houses with skin disease

³³ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ³⁴ When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving to you as a possession, and I put an infection of skin disease on a house in the land you possess, ³⁵ the homeowner must come and tell the priest, “I think some sort of infection is in my house.” ³⁶ The priest will order that the house be emptied before he comes to examine it so that nothing else in the house will become unclean. After that, the priest will come to examine the house. ³⁷ If he examines the infection, and the infection in the walls of the house consists of greenish or reddish depressions, which appear to be deeper than the surface of the wall, ³⁸ the priest will exit the house, go to the front door, and quarantine the house for seven days. ³⁹ On the seventh day, the priest will return. If he finds that the infection has spread over the walls of the house, ⁴⁰ the priest will order the stones in which the infection is found to be pulled out and discarded outside the city in an unclean area. ⁴¹ The inside of the house will then be scraped on all sides, and the plaster that has been scraped off must be dumped outside the city in an unclean area. ⁴² Then different stones will be used in place of the first ones, and new coating will be used to replaster the house.

⁴³ If the infection breaks out again in the house after the stones have been pulled out and the house scraped and replastered, ⁴⁴ the priest will return. If he finds that the infection has spread throughout the house, it is a case of infectious skin disease in the house; the house is unclean. ⁴⁵ The house must be destroyed—its stones, wood, and all the plaster in the house. All of it must be taken outside the city to an unclean area. ⁴⁶ Anyone who enters the house during the entire period when it is quarantined will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁷ Anyone who lies down in the house must wash their clothes. Anyone who eats in the house must also wash their clothes.

⁴⁸ But if the priest arrives and finds that the infection has not spread after the house was replastered, the priest will declare the house clean because the infection has been healed. ⁴⁹ To cleanse the house, the priest will take two birds, cedarwood, crimson yarn, and hyssop. ⁵⁰ He will slaughter one bird over fresh water in a pottery jar. ⁵¹ He will then take the cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson yarn, along with the wild^[a] bird, and will dip all of this into the fresh water and into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered. He will then sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵² In this way, the priest will cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the wild bird, the cedarwood, the hyssop, and the crimson yarn. ⁵³ Then he will release the wild bird outside the city into the countryside. In this way, he will make reconciliation for the house, and it will be clean.

¹³ Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you heard from me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ Protect this good thing that has been placed in your trust through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

¹⁵ You know that everyone in Asia has turned away from me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. ¹⁶ May the Lord show mercy to Onesiphorus’ household, because he supported me many times and he wasn’t ashamed of my imprisonment. ¹⁷ After I arrived in Rome, he quickly looked for me and found me. ¹⁸ May the Lord allow him to find his mercy on that day (and you know very well how much he served me in Ephesus).