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Leviticus 14

1Yahweh spoke to Moses: 2“This is the instruction for a person with tzaraat on the day of their purification: they must be brought to the priest. 3The priest must go outside the camp and examine them. If the affliction of tzaraat has healed in the affected person, 4the priest must order two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet material, and hyssop to be brought for the person being purified. 5The priest must order one of the birds slaughtered into a clay vessel over fresh water. 6He must take the live bird, the cedar wood, the scarlet material, and the hyssop, and dip them, together with the live bird, in the blood of the bird slaughtered over the fresh water. 7He must sprinkle the person being purified from tzaraat seven times and pronounce them clean, and release the live bird into the open country. 8The person being purified must wash their clothes, shave off all their hair, and bathe in water, and they will be clean. Afterward they may enter the camp, but must remain outside their tent for seven days. 9On the seventh day they must shave off all their hair—the head, the beard, and the eyebrows; they must shave off all their hair. They must wash their clothes and bathe their body in water, and they will be clean.

10“On the eighth day they must take two male lambs without defect, one year-old ewe lamb without defect, three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and one log of oil. 11The priest performing the purification must present the person being purified and these offerings before Yahweh at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 12The priest must take one of the male lambs and present it as a reparation offering, together with the log of oil, and wave them as a wave offering before Yahweh. 13The lamb must be slaughtered in the holy place where the purification offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered, because the reparation offering, like the purification offering, belongs to the priest. It is most holy. 14The priest must take some of the blood of the reparation offering and put it on the right earlobe of the person being purified, on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot. 15The priest must take some of the log of oil and pour it into the priest's left palm. 16The priest must dip his right finger in the oil in his left palm and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before Yahweh. 17From the oil left in his palm the priest must put some on the right earlobe of the person being purified, on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot, over the blood of the reparation offering. 18The oil remaining in the priest's palm he must put on the head of the person being purified. The priest will make atonement for them before Yahweh. 19The priest must prepare the purification offering and make atonement for the person being purified from their uncleanness. Afterward the burnt offering must be slaughtered. 20The priest must offer up the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. The priest will make atonement for them, and they will be clean.

21“But if they are poor and cannot afford these, they must take one male lamb as a reparation offering to be waved, to make atonement for them, one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and a log of oil, 22together with two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whichever they can afford, one as a purification offering and the other as a burnt offering. 23On the eighth day they must bring them to the priest for their purification, to the entrance of the tent of meeting before Yahweh. 24The priest must take the lamb of the reparation offering and the log of oil and wave them as a wave offering before Yahweh. 25The lamb of the reparation offering must be slaughtered, and the priest must take some of the blood of the reparation offering and put it on the right earlobe of the person being purified, on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot. 26The priest must pour some of the oil into the priest's left palm. 27With his right finger the priest must sprinkle some of the oil in his left palm seven times before Yahweh. 28From the oil in his palm the priest must put some on the right earlobe of the person being purified, on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot, at the place of the blood of the reparation offering. 29The oil remaining in the priest's palm he must put on the head of the person being purified, to make atonement for them before Yahweh. 30He must prepare one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, whichever the person can afford— 31whatever they can afford—one as a purification offering and the other as a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. The priest will make atonement before Yahweh for the person being purified. 32This is the instruction for someone with an affliction of tzaraat who cannot afford the full requirements for purification.”

33Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron: 34“When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put an affliction of tzaraat in a house in the land of your possession, 35the owner of the house must come and tell the priest, ‘Something like an affliction has appeared to me in the house.’ 36The priest must order the house emptied before he enters to examine the affliction, so that everything in the house does not become unclean. Afterward the priest must enter to examine the house. 37He must examine the affliction. If the affliction in the house's walls consists of greenish or reddish depressions that appear lower than the wall's surface, 38the priest must go out of the house to its entrance and close the house for seven days. 39On the seventh day the priest must return and examine it. If the affliction has spread in the house's walls, 40the priest must order the affected stones pulled out and thrown outside the city into an unclean place. 41He must have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster scraped off must be dumped outside the city into an unclean place. 42Other stones must be taken and put in place of those stones, and he must have other plaster brought and the house replastered.

43“If the affliction returns and breaks out in the house after the stones have been removed and the house has been scraped and replastered, 44the priest must come and examine it. If the affliction has spread in the house, it is destructive tzaraat in the house; it is unclean. 45The house must be torn down—its stones, its timber, and all its plaster—and taken outside the city to an unclean place. 46Anyone who enters the house during the whole time it is closed will be unclean until evening. 47Anyone who lies down in the house must wash their clothes, and anyone who eats in the house must wash their clothes.

48“But if the priest comes and examines it and the affliction has not spread in the house after it was replastered, the priest must pronounce the house clean, because the affliction has healed. 49To purify the house he must take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet material, and hyssop. 50He must slaughter one of the birds into a clay vessel over fresh water. 51He must take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet material, and the live bird, dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and in the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times. 52He must purify the house with the bird's blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet material. 53He must release the live bird outside the city into the open country. He will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.

54“This is the instruction for every affliction of tzaraat and for the scaly affliction, 55for tzaraat of a garment or a house, 56for a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, 57to teach when something is unclean and when it is clean. This is the instruction for tzaraat.”

Translation notes 9

14:2–3 — Brought to the priest. The priest goes outside the camp, where the person has been required to live. Being brought to him does not require the person to enter the camp before examination. “Reported to the priest” is another proposed interpretation. The affliction has already healed when the purification procedure begins; the ritual is not presented as its medical treatment.

14:4–7 — Birds and materials. One bird is killed and the other released. Cedar wood, scarlet material, and hyssop are all named, but the text does not explain every detail of their arrangement or symbolism. “Fresh water” translates “living water,” water from a flowing source. The vessel contains water over which the bird is killed; verse 51 explicitly names both blood and water for the dipping. The live bird is repeated in verse 6's dipping instruction, and the draft retains that repetition.

14:8–11 — Stages of purification. The person can reenter the camp before being permitted into their own tent. Shaving and washing recur on the seventh day, followed by offerings on the eighth. All hair, including the beard and eyebrows, is expressly named; the draft does not abbreviate the sequence to a single bath or offering.

14:10–12 — Measures; reparation offering. An ephah is a dry measure; a log is a much smaller liquid measure, roughly a third of a liter, though exact ancient capacities are uncertain. “Reparation offering” is the familiar guilt offering. Here it forms part of purification after tzaraat; the passage does not identify a particular offense or prescribe a restitution payment.

14:13–19 — Priest, oil, and blood. Some slaughtering verbs have no named subject; passive English avoids treating the priest or offerer as explicitly identified in each case. The priest's left palm holds the oil and his right finger sprinkles it. Verse 15 repeats “priest” rather than explicitly naming a second priest. Oil is placed over the blood in verse 17; the person receives the remaining oil on the head. All three right-side applications remain distinct.

14:21–32 — Reduced means; repeated wording. The less costly provision reduces the flour and replaces two lambs with birds, but still requires one male lamb for the reparation offering and a log of oil. The wording about what the person can afford is repeated at the boundary of verses 30–31. It may be accidental repetition in transmission, but the Hebrew base is intelligible as emphasis and is retained. The instructions are not shortened merely because much of the procedure repeats verses 10–20.

14:34–36 — Affected house. Yahweh explicitly speaks of putting the affliction in the house; the draft does not change that to a wholly impersonal event. The owner reports an apparent affliction, and the priest examines it. Emptying the house before examination protects its contents from the stated uncleanness; the text does not identify the cause as a particular sin by the owner.

14:37–45 — Walls and rebuilding. The affected stones and surrounding plaster are removed; other stones and plaster replace them. If the affliction returns and spreads, the house is demolished. “Plaster” represents the earthy material scraped off and reapplied, without specifying a modern building compound. Its color and appearance are retained without equating the affliction with a securely identified mold species.

14:48–53 — House purified. The text describes the house's affliction as healed and prescribes a bird rite like the person's earlier rite. It speaks of purifying and making atonement for the house, without saying that the building sinned or requiring a purification offering at the altar for it.