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† for the day of his cleansing. And he shall be brought to the priest, 3and the priest shall go 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 take for him who is to be cleansed two clean living birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet yarn, and hyssop.

5And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed 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 dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the living water. 7And he shall sprinkle it on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let loose the living bird on the face of the field.

8And he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and wash himself in the water, that he may be clean. And afterward he shall come into the camp and shall stay at the outside of his tent seven days. 9And on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, and all his hair he shall shave off. And he shall wash his clothes and wash his body 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 who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean 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 offer it as a guilt offering, and the log of the oil, and wave them as a wave offering before the face of YHWH. 13And he shall kill the lamb in the place where he kills the sin offering and the burnt offering, in a holy place; for as the sin offering, the guilt offering is unto the priest; it is holy of holies.†

14And the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 15And the priest shall take some of the log of the oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand, 16and the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the face of YHWH. 17And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand, the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be 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 in the hand of the priest, he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed; and the priest shall make atonement upon him before the face of YHWH. 19And the priest shall offer the sin offering and make atonement upon him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. 20And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering 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 as a guilt offering to be waved to make atonement upon him, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour,† and one mixed with the oil as a grain offering, and a log of oil, 22and two turtledoves or two sons of a pigeon, such as his means 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 kill the lamb of the guilt offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 26And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand; 27and the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the face of YHWH. 28And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be 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 rest of the oil that is in the hand of the priest, he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement upon him before the face of YHWH. 30And he shall offer one from the turtledoves or from the sons of the pigeon, from which his hand reaches to, 31the one† as a sin offering and the one as a burnt offering, with the grain offering. And the priest shall make atonement upon him who is to be cleansed before the face of YHWH.

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

Signs of Home Contamination

33And YHWH spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 34“When you⁺ have come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you⁺ as a possession, and I put a plague of leprosy† in a house in the land of your⁺ possession, 35then he to whom is the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘A plague has appeared in my house.’

36And the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes into it to examine the plague (that all that is in the house not be made unclean). And after thus the priest shall go in to examine the house.

37And he shall examine the plague, and if indeed the plague is on the walls of the house with ingrained streaks, greenish or reddish, and their appearance is deep in the wall, 38then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days.

39And the priest shall come again on the seventh day and look, and behold, if the plague has spread on the walls of the house, 40then the priest shall command that they 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 inside all around, and they shall pour out the dust that they have scraped off at the outside of the city, in an unclean place.

42And they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and he shall plaster the house.

43And if the plague comes back and breaks out in the house after he has taken away the stones, and after he has scraped the house, and after it is plastered, 44then the priest shall come and look.

And if indeed 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 timber, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall carry them to the outside of the city, to an unclean place. 46And he who goes into the house at all while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening. 47And he who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

Cleansing a Home

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

49And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet yarn, and hyssop, 50and he shall kill one of the birds over 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 dip them in the blood of the slain bird and in the living water, and sprinkle the house seven times. 52And he shall cleanse 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 outside the city to the face of the field, and make atonement upon the house, and it shall be clean.

54This is the law for any plague of leprosy, and for scale, 55and for leprosy of a garment and of a house, 56and for a swelling, and for a scab, and for a bright spot— 57to teach in the day of being unclean, and in the day of being 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).
31 LXX and Syriac; Hebrew such as the hand reaches to, the one
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.