³³The Lord gave Moses and Aaron ^34–35the following regulations about houses affected by spreading mildew. (These were to apply after the people of Israel entered the land of Canaan, which the Lord was going to give them as their possession.) If someone finds that the Lord has sent mildew on his house, then he must go and tell the priest about it. ³⁶The priest shall order everything to be moved out of the house before he goes to examine the mildew; otherwise everything in the house will be declared unclean. Then he shall go to the house ³⁷and examine the mildew. If there are greenish or reddish spots that appear to be eating into the wall, ³⁸he shall leave the house and lock it up for seven days. ³⁹On the seventh day he shall return and examine it again. If the mildew has spread, ⁴⁰he shall order the stones on which the mildew is found to be removed and thrown into some unclean place outside the city. ⁴¹After that he must have all the interior walls scraped and the plaster dumped in an unclean place outside the city. ⁴²Then other stones are to be used to replace the stones that were removed, and new plaster will be used to cover the walls.

⁴³If the mildew breaks out again in the house after the stones have been removed and the house has been scraped and plastered, ⁴⁴the priest shall go and look. If it has spread, the house is unclean. ⁴⁵It must be torn down, and its stones, its wood, and all its plaster must be carried out of the city to an unclean place. ⁴⁶Anyone who enters the house while it is locked up will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁷Anyone who lies down or eats in the house must wash his clothes.

⁴⁸If, when the priest comes to look, the mildew has not reappeared after the house has been replastered, he shall pronounce the house ritually clean, because the mildew has been completely removed. ⁴⁹To purify the house, he shall take two birds, some cedar wood, a red cord, and a sprig of hyssop. ⁵⁰He shall kill one of the birds over a clay bowl containing fresh spring water. ⁵¹Then he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the red cord, and the live bird and shall dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the fresh water. And he shall sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵²In this way he shall purify the house with the bird’s blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the red cord. ⁵³Then he shall let the live bird fly away outside the city over the open fields. In this way he shall perform the ritual of purification for the house, and it will be ritually clean.

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