Leviticus 14:33-57 - Instructions For Cleansing Houses

³³ The Lord further spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ³⁴ “When you come into the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put a mark of leprosy on a house in your land, ³⁵ then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘I have seen something that looks like a mark of leprosy in my house.’ ³⁶ The priest shall order that they empty the house before he goes in to examine the mark, so that everything in the house will not have to be declared unclean; afterward he shall go in to see the house. ³⁷ He shall examine the mark, and if the mark on the walls of the house has greenish or reddish depressions and appears deeper than the surface, ³⁸ the priest shall go out of the house, to the doorway, and quarantine the house for seven days. ³⁹ The priest shall return on the seventh day and look; and if the mark has spread on the walls of the house, ⁴⁰ he shall order them to tear out the contaminated stones and throw them into an unclean place outside the city. ⁴¹ He shall have the entire inside area of the house scraped, and the plaster that is scraped off shall be dumped in an unclean place outside the city. ⁴² Then they shall take new stones and replace the [contaminated] stones, and he shall take plaster and replaster the house.

⁴³ “If, however, the mark breaks out again in the house after he has removed the stones and has scraped and replastered the house, ⁴⁴ then the priest shall come and look again, and if the mark has spread in the house, it is a malignant leprosy in the house; it is [ceremonially] unclean. ⁴⁵ He shall tear down the house—its stones and its timber and all the plaster of the house—and shall take everything outside the city to an unclean place. ⁴⁶ Moreover, whoever goes into the house during the time that it is quarantined becomes unclean until evening. ⁴⁷ And whoever lies down in the house [to rest] shall wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

⁴⁸ “But if the priest comes in and inspects it and the mark has not spread in the house after the house has been replastered, he 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 scarlet string and hyssop; ⁵⁰ and he shall kill one of the birds in an earthenware container over running water, ⁵¹ and he shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet string, and the living 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 So he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the running water, along with the live bird and the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet string. ⁵³ But 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 on the skin— ⁵⁷ to teach when they are unclean and when they are clean. This is the law of leprosy [in regard to both persons and property].