Cleansing from Skin Diseases
(Matthew 8:1–4; Mark 1:40–45; Luke 5:12–16)

1And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 2“This shall be the law of the leper† in the day of his cleansing. And he shall be brought to the priest, 3and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. And the priest shall examine him, and behold, if the plague of the leprosy is healed in the leper, 4then the priest shall command, and he shall take for the one being cleansed two clean living birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet yarn, and hyssop.

5And the priest shall command, and he shall slaughter one of the birds in an earthen vessel over living water.† 6The living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet yarn, and the hyssop, and he shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the living water. 7And he shall sprinkle it on the one being cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and he shall send out the living bird upon the face of the field.

8And the one being cleansed shall wash his clothes and he shall shave off all his hair, and he shall wash himself in the water, and he shall be clean. And afterward he shall come into the camp, and he shall dwell outside of his tent seven days. 9And on the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair—his head and his beard and his eyebrows—and all his hair he shall shave off. And he shall wash his clothes, and he shall wash his flesh in the water, and he shall be clean.

10And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs, unblemished, and one ewe lamb, a daughter of a year, unblemished, and three tenths of an ephah† of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with the oil, and one log of oil.† 11And the priest, the one cleansing, shall present the man, the one being cleansed, and together with these before the face of YHWH at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

12And the priest shall take the one male lamb, and he shall bring it near for a guilt offering, and the log of the oil, and he shall wave them as a wave offering before the face of YHWH. 13And he shall slaughter the lamb in the place where he slaughters the sin offering and the burnt offering, in a holy place; for like the sin offering, the guilt offering. It is for the priest; it is holy of holies.†

14And the priest shall take from the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of the one being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 15And the priest shall take from the log of the oil, and he shall pour it upon the palm of the priest's left hand, 16and the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is upon his left palm, and he shall sprinkle from the oil with his finger seven times before the face of YHWH. 17And from the remainder of the oil that is upon his palm, the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of the one being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the guilt offering.

18And the rest of the oil that is upon the palm of the priest, he shall put on the head of the one being cleansed; and the priest shall make atonement upon him before the face of YHWH. 19And the priest shall do the sin offering, and he shall make atonement upon the one being cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward he shall slaughter the burnt offering. 20And the priest shall cause the burnt offering and the grain offering to go up on the altar. And the priest shall make atonement upon him, and he shall be clean.

21And if he is poor, and his hand cannot reach, then he shall take one male lamb, a guilt offering, for a wave offering, to make atonement upon him, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour,† one mixed with the oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil, 22and two turtledoves or two sons of a pigeon, which his hand can reach; and one shall be a sin offering, and the one a burnt offering.

23And he shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting, before the face of YHWH. 24And the priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering, and the log of the oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the face of YHWH.

25And he shall slaughter the lamb of the guilt offering, and the priest shall take from the blood of the guilt offering, and he shall put it on the tip of the right ear of the one being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 26And the priest shall pour from the oil upon the palm of the priest's left hand. 27And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger from the oil that is upon his left palm seven times before the face of YHWH. 28And the priest shall put from the oil that is upon his palm on the tip of the right ear of the one being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the guilt offering.

29And the remainder from the oil that is upon the palm of the priest he shall put on the head of the one being cleansed, to make atonement upon him before the face of YHWH. 30And he shall do one from the turtledoves or from the sons of the pigeon, from which his hand reaches to, 31that which his hand reaches, the one as a sin offering and the one as a burnt offering, with the grain offering. And the priest shall make atonement upon the one being cleansed before the face of YHWH.

32This is the law of him in whom is a plague of leprosy, whose hand does not reach in his cleansing.”

Signs of Home Contamination

33And YHWH spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 34“When you⁺ come into the land of Canaan, which I am giving to you⁺ for a possession, and I put a plague of leprosy† in a house of the land of your⁺ possession, 35then he to whom the house belongs shall come, and he shall tell the priest, saying, ‘Something like a plague has appeared to me in the house.’

36And the priest shall command, and they shall empty the house before the priest goes in to examine the plague, and all that is in the house shall not become unclean. And after thus, the priest shall go in to examine the house.

37And he shall examine the plague, and behold, if the plague is in the walls of the house—hollow spots, greenish or reddish—and their appearance is lower than the wall, 38then the priest shall go out from the house to the door of the house, and he shall shut up the house seven days.

39And the priest shall return on the seventh day and he shall examine, and behold, if the plague has spread in the walls of the house, 40then the priest shall command, and they shall take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them to the outside of the city, to an unclean place. 41And he shall cause the house to be scraped from the house all around, and they shall pour out the dust that they have scraped off to the outside of the city, to an unclean place.

42And they shall take other stones, and they shall bring them to the place of the stones; and he shall take other mortar, and he shall plaster the house.

43And if the plague returns and it breaks out in the house after his taking out of the stones, and after his scraping the house, and after his plastering, 44then the priest shall come and he shall examine,

and behold, if the plague has spread in the house, it is a harmful leprosy in the house; it is unclean. 45And he shall break down the house, its stones, and its timbers, and all the mortar of the house, and he shall carry them to the outside of the city, to an unclean place. 46And the one coming into the house all the days of his shutting it up shall be unclean until the evening. 47And the one lying down in the house shall wash his clothes, and the one eating in the house shall wash his clothes.

Cleansing a Home

48And if the priest surely comes and examines it, and behold, the plague has not spread in the house after the plastering of the house, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean because the plague has been healed.

49And he shall take to cleanse from sin the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet yarn, and hyssop, 50and he shall slaughter one of the birds in an earthen vessel over living water.

51And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet yarn, and the living bird, and he shall dip them in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered and in the living water, and he shall sprinkle it toward the house seven times. 52And he shall cleanse from sin the house with the blood of the bird, and with the living water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet yarn.

53And he shall send away the living bird to the outside of the city to the face of the field, and he shall make atonement upon the house, and it shall be clean.

54This is the law for every plague of leprosy, and for the scale, 55and for leprosy of the garment and of the house, 56and for a swelling, and for the scab, and for the bright spot— 57to teach in the day of the unclean, and in the day of the clean. This is the law of the leprosy.†”

Footnotes:

2 Forms of the Hebrew tzaraath, traditionally translated as leprosy, were used for various skin diseases; also in verses 3, 7, 32, 54, and 57.
5 Or flowing water or fresh water; here and in verses 6, 50, 51, and 52
10 Three-tenths of an ephah is approximately 6 dry quarts or 6.6 liters (probably about 7.6 pounds or 3.5 kilograms of flour).
10 Or one log of olive oil; that is, approximately 0.33 quarts or 0.31 liters; also in verses 12, 15, 21, and 24
13 Or most holy
21 A tenth of an ephah is approximately 2 dry quarts or 2.2 liters (probably about 2.6 pounds or 1.2 kilograms of flour).
34 Forms of the Hebrew tzaraath, traditionally translated as leprosy regarding skin diseases, are translated as mildew regarding blemishes on garments, utensils, or buildings; here and throughout the remainder of this chapter.
57 that is, the law of skin diseases and mildew; see the footnotes for verses 2 and 34.