Clean Your House

Cleansing a Leprous House

³³ The Lord further spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying:

³⁴ “When you enter the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a mark of leprosy on a house in the land of your possession, ³⁵ then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘Something like a mark of leprosy has become visible to me in the house.’ ³⁶ The priest shall then command that they empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the mark, so that everything in the house need not become unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to look at the house. ³⁷ So he shall look at the mark, and if the mark on the walls of the house has greenish or reddish depressions and appears deeper than the surface, ³⁸ then the priest shall come out of the house, to the doorway, and quarantine the house for seven days. ³⁹ The priest shall return on the seventh day and make an inspection. If the mark has indeed spread in the walls of the house, ⁴⁰ then the priest shall order them to tear out the stones with the mark in them and throw them away at an unclean place outside the city. ⁴¹ He shall have the house scraped all around inside, and they shall dump the plaster that they scrape off at an unclean place outside the city. ⁴² Then they shall take other stones and replace those stones, and he shall take other plaster and replaster the house.

⁴³ “If, however, the mark breaks out again in the house after he has torn out the stones and scraped the house, and after it has been replastered, ⁴⁴ then the priest shall come in and make an inspection. If he sees that the mark has indeed spread in the house, it is a malignant mark in the house; it is unclean. ⁴⁵ He shall therefore tear down the house, its stones, and its timbers, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall take them outside the city to an unclean place. ⁴⁶ Moreover, whoever goes into the house during the time that he has quarantined it, becomes unclean until evening. ⁴⁷ Likewise, whoever lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

⁴⁸ “If, on the other hand, the priest comes in and makes an inspection and the mark has not indeed spread in the house after the house has been replastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean because the mark has not reappeared. ⁴⁹ To cleanse the house then, he shall take two birds and cedar wood and a scarlet string and hyssop, ⁵⁰ and he shall slaughter the one bird in an earthenware vessel over running water. ⁵¹ Then he shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet string, with the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird as well as in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times.⁵² He shall thus cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the running water, along with the live bird and with the cedar wood and with the hyssop and with the scarlet string. ⁵³ However, he shall let the live bird go free outside the city into the open field. So he shall make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.”

⁵⁴ This is the law for any mark of leprosy—even for a scale, ⁵⁵ and for the leprous garment or house, ⁵⁶ and for a swelling, and for a scab, and for a bright spot—⁵⁷ to teach when they are unclean and when they are clean. This is the law of leprosy.

Cleansing Unhealthiness

15 The Lord also spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. ³ This, moreover, shall be his uncleanness in his discharge: it is his uncleanness whether his body allows its discharge to flow or whether his body obstructs its discharge. ⁴ Every bed on which the person with the discharge lies becomes unclean, and everything on which he sits becomes unclean.⁵ Anyone, moreover, who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening; ⁶ and whoever sits on the thing on which the man with the discharge has been sitting, shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ⁷ Also whoever touches the person with the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.⁸ Or if the man with the discharge spits on one who is clean, he too shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ⁹ Every saddle on which the person with the discharge rides becomes unclean. ¹⁰ Whoever then touches any of the things which were under him shall be unclean until evening, and he who carries them shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ¹¹ Likewise, whomever the one with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ¹² However, an earthenware vessel which the person with the discharge touches shall be broken, and every wooden vessel shall be rinsed in water.

¹³ ‘Now when the man with the discharge becomes cleansed from his discharge, then he shall count off for himself seven days for his cleansing; he shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in running water and will become clean. ¹⁴ Then on the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord to the doorway of the tent of meeting and give them to the priest; ¹⁵ and the priest shall offer them, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf before the Lord because of his discharge.

¹⁶ ‘Now if a man has a seminal emission, he shall bathe all his body in water and be unclean until evening. ¹⁷ As for any garment or any leather on which there is seminal emission, it shall be washed with water and be unclean until evening. ¹⁸ If a man lies with a woman so that there is a seminal emission, they shall both bathe in water and be unclean until evening.

¹⁹ ‘When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. ²⁰ Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean.²¹ Anyone who touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ²² Whoever touches any thing on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ²³ Whether it be on the bed or on the thing on which she is sitting, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. ²⁴ If a man actually lies with her so that her menstrual impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.

²⁵ ‘Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days, not at the period of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond that period, all the days of her impure discharge she shall continue as though in her menstrual impurity; she is unclean. ²⁶ Any bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her like her bed at menstruation; and every thing on which she sits shall be unclean, like her uncleanness at that time. ²⁷ Likewise, whoever touches them shall be unclean and shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ²⁸ When she becomes clean from her discharge, she shall count off for herself seven days; and afterward she will be clean. ²⁹ Then on the eighth day she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them in to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting. ³⁰ The priest shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. So the priest shall make atonement on her behalf before the Lord because of her impure discharge.’

³¹ “Thus you shall keep the sons of Israel separated from their uncleanness, so that they will not die in their uncleanness by their defiling My tabernacle that is among them.” ³² This is the law for the one with a discharge, and for the man who has a seminal emission so that he is unclean by it, ³³ and for the woman who is ill because of menstrual impurity, and for the one who has a discharge, whether a male or a female, or a man who lies with an unclean woman.