Leviticus 13–15

Laws Concerning Skin-Diseases

13The Lord gave Moses and Aaron these regulations. ²If anyone has a sore on his skin or a boil or an inflammation which could develop into a dreaded skin disease, he shall be brought to the Aaronite priest. ³The priest shall examine the sore, and if the hairs in it have turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the surrounding skin, it is a dreaded skin disease, and the priest shall pronounce the person unclean. ⁴But if the sore is white and does not appear to be deeper than the skin round it and the hairs have not turned white, the priest shall isolate the person for seven days. ⁵The priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if in his opinion the sore looks the same and has not spread, he shall isolate him for another seven days. ⁶The priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if the sore has faded and has not spread, he shall pronounce him ritually clean; it is only a sore. The person shall wash his clothes and be ritually clean. ⁷But if the sore spreads after the priest has examined him and pronounced him clean, he must appear before the priest again. ⁸The priest will examine him again, and if it has spread, he shall pronounce him unclean; it is a dreaded skin disease.

⁹If anyone has a dreaded skin disease, he shall be brought to the priest, ¹⁰who will examine him. If there is a white sore on his skin which turns the hairs white and is full of pus, ¹¹it is a chronic skin disease. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; there is no need to isolate him, because he is obviously unclean. ¹²If the skin disease spreads and covers the person from head to foot, ¹³the priest shall examine him again. If he finds that it actually has covered the whole body, he shall pronounce the person ritually clean. If his whole skin has turned white, he is ritually clean. ¹⁴But from the moment an open sore appears, he is unclean. ¹⁵The priest shall examine him again, and if he sees an open sore, he shall pronounce him unclean. An open sore means a dreaded skin disease, and the person is unclean. ¹⁶But when the sore heals and becomes white again, the person shall go to the priest, ¹⁷who will examine him again. If the sore has turned white, he is ritually clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

¹⁸If anyone has a boil that has healed ¹⁹and if afterwards a white swelling or a reddish-white spot appears where the boil was, he shall go to the priest. ²⁰The priest shall examine him, and if the spot seems to be deeper than the surrounding skin and the hairs in it have turned white, he shall pronounce him unclean. It is a dreaded skin disease that has started in the boil. ²¹But if the priest examines it and finds that the hairs in it have not turned white and that it is not deeper than the surrounding skin, but is light in colour, the priest shall isolate him for seven days. ²²If the spot spreads, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; he is diseased. ²³But if it remains unchanged and does not spread, it is only the scar left from the boil, and the priest shall pronounce him ritually clean.

²⁴In the case of a person who has been burnt, if the raw flesh becomes white or reddish-white, ²⁵the priest shall examine him. If the hairs in the spot have turned white and it appears deeper than the surrounding skin, it is a dreaded skin disease that has started in the burn, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. ²⁶But if the hairs in it have not turned white and it is not deeper than the surrounding skin, but is light in colour, the priest shall isolate him for seven days. ²⁷The priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if it is spreading, it is a dreaded skin disease, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. ²⁸But if the spot remains unchanged and does not spread and is light in colour, it is not a dreaded skin disease. The priest shall pronounce him ritually clean, because it is only a scar from the burn.

²⁹When a man or a woman has a sore on the head or the chin, ³⁰the priest shall examine it. If it seems to be deeper than the surrounding skin and the hairs in it are yellowish and thin, it is a dreaded skin disease, and he shall pronounce the person unclean. ³¹If, when the priest examines him, the sore does not appear to be deeper than the surrounding skin, but there are still no healthy hairs in it, he shall isolate him for seven days. ³²The priest shall examine the sore again on the seventh day, and if it has not spread and there are no yellowish hairs in it and it does not seem to be deeper than the surrounding skin, ³³the person shall shave the head except the area round the sore. The priest shall then isolate him for another seven days. ³⁴On the seventh day the priest shall again examine the sore, and if it has not spread and does not seem to be deeper than the surrounding skin, he shall pronounce him ritually clean. The person shall wash his clothes, and he will be clean. ³⁵But if the sore spreads after he has been pronounced clean, ³⁶the priest shall examine him again. If the sore has spread, he need not look for yellowish hairs; the person is obviously unclean. ³⁷But if in the priest’s opinion the sore has not spread and healthy hairs are growing in it, the sore has healed, and the priest shall pronounce him ritually clean.

³⁸When a man or a woman has white spots on the skin, ³⁹the priest shall examine that person. If the spots are dull white, it is only a blemish that has broken out on the skin; the person is ritually clean.

^40–41If a man loses his hair at the back or the front of his head, this does not make him unclean. ⁴²But if a reddish-white sore appears on the bald spot, it is a dreaded skin disease. ⁴³The priest shall examine him, and if there is a reddish-white sore, ⁴⁴the priest shall pronounce him unclean, because of the dreaded skin disease on his head.

⁴⁵A person who has a dreaded skin disease must wear torn clothes, leave his hair uncombed, cover the lower part of his face, and call out, “Unclean, unclean!” ⁴⁶He remains unclean as long as he has the disease, and he must live outside the camp, away from others.

Laws Concerning Mildew

⁴⁷When there is mildew^e on clothing, whether wool or linen, ⁴⁸or on any piece of linen or wool cloth or on leather or anything made of leather, ⁴⁹if it is greenish or reddish, it is a spreading mildew and must be shown to the priest. ⁵⁰The priest shall examine it and put the object away for seven days. ⁵¹He shall examine it again on the seventh day, and if the mildew has spread, the object is unclean. ⁵²The priest shall burn it, because it is a spreading mildew which must be destroyed by fire.

⁵³But if, when he examines it, the priest finds that the mildew has not spread on the object, ⁵⁴he shall order it to be washed and put away for another seven days. ⁵⁵Then he shall examine it, and if the mildew has not changed colour, even though it has not spread, it is still unclean; you must burn the object, whether the rot is on the front or the back. ⁵⁶But if, when the priest examines it again, the mildew has faded, he shall tear it out of the clothing or leather. ⁵⁷Then, if the mildew reappears, it is spreading again, and the owner shall burn the object. ⁵⁸If he washes the object and the spot disappears, he shall wash it again, and it will be ritually clean.

⁵⁹This, then, is the law about mildew on clothing, whether it is wool or linen, or on linen or wool cloth or on anything made of leather; this is how the decision is made as to whether it is ritually clean or unclean.

Purification after Having Skin-Diseases

14The Lord gave Moses ^2*the following regulations about the ritual purification of a person cured of a dreaded skin disease. On the day he is to be pronounced clean, he shall be brought to the priest, ³and the priest shall take him outside the camp and examine him. If the disease is healed, ⁴the priest shall order two ritually clean birds to be brought, together with a piece of cedar wood, a red cord, and a sprig of hyssop. ⁵Then the priest shall order one of the birds to be killed over a clay bowl containing fresh spring water. ⁶He shall 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. ⁷He shall sprinkle the blood seven times on the person who is to be purified from his skin disease, and then he shall pronounce him clean. He shall let the live bird fly away over the open fields. ⁸The person shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and have a bath; he will then be ritually clean. He may enter the camp, but he must live outside his tent for seven days. ⁹On the seventh day he shall again shave his head, his beard, his eyebrows, and all the rest of the hair on his body; he shall wash his clothes and have a bath, and then he will be ritually clean.

¹⁰On the eighth day he shall bring two male lambs and one female lamb a year old that are without any defects, three kilogrammes of flour mixed with olive oil, and a third of a litre of olive oil. ¹¹The priest shall take the person and these offerings to the entrance of the Tent of the Lord’s presence. ¹²Then the priest shall take one of the male lambs and together with the one-third of a litre of oil he shall offer it as a repayment offering. He shall present them as a special gift to the Lord for the priest. ¹³He shall kill the lamb in the place where the animals for the sin offerings and the burnt offerings are killed. He must do this because the repayment offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest and is very holy. ¹⁴The priest shall take some of the blood of the lamb and put it on the lobe of the right ear, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of the right foot of the one who is to be declared ritually clean. ¹⁵The priest shall take some of the olive oil and pour it in the palm of his own left hand, ¹⁶dip a finger of his right hand in it, and sprinkle some of it seven times there in the Lord’s presence. ¹⁷He shall take some of the…