1 Jehovah gave Moses

2 the following regulations about the ritual purification of those of you cured of a dreaded skin disease: »On the day you are to be pronounced clean, you should be brought to the priest.

3 »The priest will take you outside the camp and examine you. If the disease is healed,

4 the priest will order that two ritually clean birds be brought, along with a piece of cedar wood, a red cord, and a sprig of hyssop.

5 »The priest will order that one of the birds be killed over a clay bowl containing fresh spring water.

6 »He will take the other bird and dip it, together with the cedar wood, the red cord, and the hyssop, in the blood of the bird that was killed.

7 »He will sprinkle the blood seven times on the one of you who is to be purified from your skin disease. He will then pronounce you clean. He will let the live bird fly away over the open fields.

8 »You must wash your clothes, shave off all your hair, and take a bath. You will then be ritually clean. You may enter the camp. You must live outside your tent for seven days.

9 »On the seventh day you should again shave your head, your beard, your eyebrows, and all the rest of the hair on your body. You should wash your clothes and take a bath. Then you will be ritually clean.

10 »The eighth day bring two male lambs and one female lamb a year old that are without any defects. Also bring five pounds of flour mixed with olive oil, and half a pint of olive oil.

11 »The priest will take you and these offerings to the entrance of the Tent of Jehovah’s presence.

12 »Then the priest will take one of the male lambs and together with the half pint of oil he will offer it as a repayment offering. He will present them as a special gift to Jehovah for the priest.

13 »He will slaughter the lamb in the holy place where the animals for the sin offerings and the burnt offerings are slaughtered. He must do this because the repayment offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest and is very holy.

14 »The priest will take some of the blood from the guilt offering and put it on the right ear lobe, on the right thumb, and on the big toe of the right foot of the one to be cleansed.

15 »The priest will also take some of the olive oil and pour it into his own left hand.

16 »He will dip his right finger in the oil in his left hand, and with his finger sprinkle some of the oil seven times in Jehovah’s presence.

17 »The priest will put some of the oil that is still in his hand on the right ear lobe, on the right thumb, and on the big toe of the right foot of the one to be cleansed. These are the same places he had put the blood of the guilt offering.

18 »The priest will put the rest of the oil in his hand on the head of the one to be cleansed. So he will pay compensation for wrongdoing and make peace with Jehovah for that person in Jehovah’s presence.

19 »The priest will also sacrifice the offering for sin to make peace with Jehovah for the one who is being cleansed from his impurity. After that, he will slaughter the burnt offering.

20 »He will sacrifice the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. So the priest will pay compensation for the wrong and make peace with Jehovah for that person. The person who had the skin disease will be clean.

21 »If the one to be cleansed is poor and cannot afford that much, he must take one male lamb, present it to pay compensation for the wrong and make peace with Jehovah for himself, and use it for his guilt offering. He will take only eight cups of flour mixed with olive oil as a grain offering, a quart of olive oil,

22 and two mourning doves or two pigeons, whatever he can afford. The one will be an offering for sin and the other a burnt offering.

23 »The eighth day he will take them to the priest for his cleansing at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting in Jehovah’s presence.

24 »The priest will take the lamb for the guilt offering and the quart of olive oil and present them to Jehovah.

25 »He will slaughter the lamb as a guilt offering. The priest will take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the right ear lobe, on the right thumb, and on the big toe of the right foot of the one to be cleansed.

26 »The priest will pour some of the olive oil into his own left hand.

27 »In Jehovah’s presence he will sprinkle some of the oil with his right finger seven times.

28 »The priest will put some of the oil that is in his hand on the right ear lobe, on the right thumb, and on the big toe of the right foot of the one to be cleansed. These are the same places he had put the blood of the guilt offering.

29 »In Jehovah’s presence, the priest will pour the rest of the oil in his hand on the head of the one to be cleansed in order to make a payment for him.

30 »The one to be cleansed must take one of the mourning doves or pigeons, the one he can afford,

31 and sacrifice it as an offering for sin. He will take the other and sacrifice it as a burnt offering together with the grain offering. So in Jehovah’s presence the priest will pay compensation for the wrong and make peace with Jehovah for the one who is being cleansed.

32 »These are the instructions for one who has an infectious skin disease but cannot afford what is needed for his cleansing.«

33 Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron:

34 »When you come to Canaan that I am going to give to you, mildew may appear in a house.

35 »The owner of that house must come and tell the priest that there is something that looks like mildew in his house.

36 »Before the priest examines the house, he will order everything taken out of it so that nothing in the house will become unclean. Then the priest will go inside to examine the house.

37 »He will examine the mildew area on the walls. If it is green and red in sunken areas that are deeper than the rest of the wall,

38 the priest will go out to the door of the house and close up the house for seven days.

39 »The priest will go back and examine it again on the seventh day. If the mildew in the walls of the house has spread,

40 he must order the stones that have the mildew to be torn out and thrown outside the city in an unclean place.

41 »He must have the entire inside of the house scraped. The plaster dust scraped off the walls must be dumped in an unclean place outside the city.

42 »The stones must be replaced, and the house must be plastered again.

43 »If the mildew breaks out again in the house after the stones have been removed and the house has been scraped and plastered,

44 the priest will go and look. If it has spread, the house is unclean.

45 »It must be torn down, and its stones, its wood, and all its plaster must be carried out of the city to an unclean place.

46 »Whoever goes into the house during the time that he has quarantined it, becomes unclean until evening.

47 »Whoever lies down in the house must wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house must wash his clothes.

48 »If the mildew has not reappeared after the house has been replastered, the priest will pronounce the house ritually clean. This is because the mildew has been completely removed.

49 »He shall take two birds, some cedar wood, a red cord, and a sprig of hyssop to purify the house.

50 »He should kill one of the birds over a clay bowl containing fresh spring water.

51 »Then he will take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the red cord, and the live bird and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the fresh water. He will sprinkle the house seven times.

52 »This is the way he will purify the house with the bird's blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the red cord.

53 »Then the priest will let the living bird fly from the city into the open country. He will pay compensation for wrongdoing and make peace with Jehovah for the house. It will be clean.«

54 These are the instructions for any kind of mildew or fungus

55 that infects clothing or houses

56 and for skin diseases where there is a sore, a rash, or an irritated area.

57 These instructions for skin diseases and mildew help you distinguish between what is clean and unclean.