What steps follow when the priest finds that a person’s leprosy has cleared?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The priest begins the cleansing rite outside the camp. The person washes and shaves, returns to the camp but stays outside his tent for seven days, washes and shaves again, and brings the prescribed offerings on the eighth day. The chapter also gives an alternative offering for a poor person and separate rules for affected houses.

Chapter breakdown

The Lord tells Moses the rite for a person to be cleansed of leprosy. The person is brought to the priest, who goes outside the camp and examines whether the leprosy has cleared. He orders the person to provide two living sparrows lawful to eat, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop. One sparrow is killed in an earthen vessel over living waters. Challoner explains living waters as water taken from a spring, brook or river. The living sparrow, cedar, scarlet and hyssop are dipped in the dead sparrow’s blood. The priest sprinkles the person seven times for purification, then releases the living sparrow to fly into the field.

The man washes his clothes, shaves all his body hair and washes with water. Once purified, he enters the camp but must stay outside his own tent for seven days. On the seventh day he shaves his head, beard, eyebrows and all his body hair, and again washes his clothes and body.

On the eighth day he brings two lambs without blemish, a one-year-old ewe without blemish, three tenths of flour mixed with oil for an offering, and a separate sextary of oil. Challoner calls the sextary a Hebrew log, one twelfth of a hin, holding about the volume of six eggs. The priest presents the man and these things before the Lord at the tabernacle door. He offers a lamb for trespass with the oil and kills it in the holy place where the sin offering and whole burnt offering are killed. Like the sin offering, the trespass offering belongs to the priest and is most holy. The priest puts some of its blood on the man’s right ear tip, right thumb and right big toe.

Challoner interprets the cleansing ceremonies as signs of a sinner’s return to God. In his explanation, the seven sprinklings refer to repeated application of Christ’s blood; washing refers to cleansing the conscience through sorrow for sin; and shaving refers to cutting away vanities and unnecessary things, using what is beyond one’s needs for alms. He interprets the sin and burnt offerings as a contrite and humble heart, worship in spirit and truth, and gratitude for forgiveness. He also interprets the blood and oil on the right ear, thumb and toe as Christ’s blood and the sevenfold grace of the Holy Ghost directing the person’s hearing and obedience, actions and steps or affections toward God. These explanations are Challoner’s commentary, separate from the Scripture instructions.

The priest pours some of the oil into his own left hand, dips his right finger in it and sprinkles it seven times before the Lord. He puts the remaining oil from his left hand on the man’s right ear tip, right thumb and right big toe, on the blood from the trespass offering, and on his head. He prays for him before the Lord, offers the sacrifice for sin, and then kills the whole burnt offering and places it on the altar with its accompanying offerings, called libations in this edition. The man is rightly cleansed.

If the man is poor and cannot provide these things, he brings one lamb for trespass so the priest may pray for him, one tenth of flour mixed with oil, a sextary of oil, and two turtledoves or two young pigeons. Verse 22 assigns one bird for sin and the other for a whole burnt offering. He brings them to the priest before the Lord at the tabernacle door on the eighth day. The priest receives the trespass lamb and oil, lifts them together, kills the lamb and puts its blood on the man’s right ear tip, right thumb and right big toe.

The priest pours part of the oil into his left hand and, dipping a finger of his right hand in it, sprinkles seven times before the Lord. He touches the man’s right ear tip, right thumb and right big toe with oil at the places where the trespass blood was put. He pours the other part of the oil in his hand on the man’s head to appease the Lord for him. He then offers the birds with their accompanying offerings. At this later step, verse 31 calls one bird a trespass offering and the other a whole burnt offering; this edition’s wording differs from verse 22, which calls the first bird an offering for sin. The closing statement identifies this as the sacrifice for a person with leprosy who cannot provide all that is required for cleansing.

The Lord tells Moses and Aaron what to do when Israel enters Chanaan, the land he will give them as a possession, and a house has the plague of leprosy. The owner tells the priest that the house seems affected. Before entering to inspect it, the priest orders everything taken out; the verse warns about the things inside becoming unclean. He then examines the house. If the walls have little depressions marked by paleness or redness, lower than the rest, he leaves and shuts the house for seven days. He returns on the seventh day. If it has spread, he orders the affected stones removed and thrown into an unclean place outside the city. The inside of the house is scraped all around, and the scrapings are scattered in an unclean place outside the city. Replacement stones are laid and the house is plastered with other mortar.

If, after the stones are removed, the dust scraped away and new plaster applied, the priest finds the condition has returned and the walls are full of spots, it is lasting leprosy and the house is unclean. The house must be destroyed at once; its stones, timber and all its dust are carried to an unclean place outside the town. Anyone entering while the house is shut is unclean until evening. Anyone sleeping in it and eating anything must wash their clothes. If, instead, the priest finds that the condition has not spread after replastering, he purifies the house because it is cured.

For the house’s purification, the priest takes two sparrows, cedar, scarlet and hyssop. One sparrow is killed in an earthen vessel over living waters. The cedar, hyssop, scarlet and living bird are dipped in the dead bird’s blood and the living water, and the house is sprinkled seven times. It is purified with the blood, water, living bird, cedar, hyssop and scarlet. The priest releases the living sparrow to fly freely into the field and prays for the house, which is rightly cleansed.

The chapter closes by naming this as the law of every kind of leprosy and stroke, including garments and houses, scars, blisters arising from a shining spot and changes of colour, so that clean and unclean may be known.

The story inside

The house rules distinguish an owner’s report from the priest’s examination and later findings (14:33–53). The owner says the house seems affected. The priest orders it emptied before he enters, then shuts it for seven days only after seeing the described depressions and colours. Spread at the next inspection leads to removing stones, scraping and replacing materials. Return after that work leads to destruction of the house; no spread after replastering leads to purification with the birds and other materials and prayer for the house. These are conditional instructions rather than the history of a particular family. The sequence matters because a suspected mark, spread at inspection and return after repair have different prescribed responses. The chapter does not identify the condition as fungus or describe losses to neighboring houses.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The person’s return has distinct stages. The priest examines outside the camp and performs the bird rite; the man washes and shaves, returns to the camp while staying outside his tent, and completes another washing and shaving before the eighth-day offerings. Each location and day belongs to its own step.
2
The poor-person alternative changes some offerings while retaining others. One lamb for trespass, a sextary of oil and the blood-and-oil applications remain, while the flour amount is reduced and birds supply the other offerings. The edition’s different sin and trespass labels in verses 22 and 31 must remain visible.
3
The house rule depends on repeated findings. Spread after seven days leads to removing stones and replastering; return after that work leads to destruction; no spread after replastering leads to purification. Keeping those branches avoids treating every suspected house as already condemned.

Test your recall

How does the priest’s finding after the first seven days differ from his finding after stones are replaced and the house replastered, and how does each finding change the required action?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 12035–12062
Leviticus Chapter 14 The rites of sacrifices in cleansing the leprosy. Leprosy in houses. 14:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 14:2. This is the rite of a leper, when he is to be cleansed. He shall be brought to the priest: 14:3. Who going out of the camp, when he shall find that the leprosy is cleansed, 14:4. Shall command him that is to be purified, to offer for himself two living sparrows, which it is lawful to eat, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. 14:5. And he shall command one of the sparrows to be immolated in an earthen vessel over living waters. Living waters.... That is, waters taken from a spring, brook, or river. 14:6. But the other that is alive, he shall dip, with the cedar wood, and the scarlet and the hyssop, in the blood of the sparrow that is immolated: 14:7. Wherewith he shall sprinkle him that is to be cleansed seven times, that he may be rightly purified. And he shall let go the living sparrow, that it may fly into the field.
Lines 12064–12071
14:8. And when the man hath washed his clothes, he shall shave all the hair of his body, and shall be washed with water: and being purified he shall enter into the camp, yet so that he tarry without his own tent seven days. 14:9. And on the seventh day he shall shave the hair of his head, and his beard and his eyebrows, and the hair of all his body. And having washed again his clothes, and his body,
Lines 12073–12095
14:10. On the eighth day, he shall take two lambs without blemish, and an ewe of a year old without blemish, and three tenths of flour tempered with oil for a sacrifice, and a sextary of oil apart. A sextary.... Heb. log: a measure of liquids, which was the twelfth part of a hin; and held about as much as six eggs. 14:11. And when the priest that purifieth the man, hath presented him, and all these things before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony: 14:12. He shall take a lamb, and offer it for a trespass offering with the sextary of oil. And having offered all before the Lord, 14:13. He shall immolate the lamb, where the victim for sin is wont to be immolated, and the holocaust, that is, in the holy place. For as that which is for sin, so also the victim for a trespass offering pertaineth to the priest: it is holy of holies. 14:14. And the priest taking of the blood of the victim that was immolated for trespass, shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot.
Lines 12097–12118
Taking of the blood, etc.... These ceremonies used in the cleansing of a leper, were mysterious and very significative. The sprinkling seven times with the blood of the little bird, the washing himself and his clothes, the shaving his hair and his beard, signify the means which are to be used in the reconciliation of a sinner, and the steps by which he is to return to God, viz., by the repeated application of the blood of Christ: the washing his conscience with the waters of compunction: and retrenching all vanities and superfluities, by employing all that is over and above what is necessary in alms deeds. The sin offering, and the holocaust or burnt offering, which he was to offer at his cleansing, signify the sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart, and that of adoration in spirit and truth, with gratitude and thankfulness, for the forgiveness of sins, with which we are ever to appear before the Almighty. The touching the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, first with the blood of the victim, and then with the remainder of the oil, which had been sprinkled seven times before the Lord, signify the application of the blood of Christ, and the unction of the sevenfold grace of the Holy Ghost; to the sinner’s right ear, that he may duly hearken to and obey the law of God; and to his right hand and foot, that the works of his hands, and all the steps or affections of his soul, signified by the feet, may be rightly directed to God.
Lines 12120–12136
14:15. And he shall pour of the sextary of oil into his own left hand, 14:16. And shall dip his right finger in it, and sprinkle it before the Lord seven times. 14:17. And the rest of the oil in his left hand, he shall pour upon the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot, and upon the blood that was shed for trespass: 14:18. And upon his head. 14:19. And he shall pray for him before the Lord, and shall offer the sacrifice for sin. Then shall he immolate the holocaust. 14:20. And put it on the altar with the libations thereof: and the man shall be rightly cleansed.
Lines 12138–12155
14:21. But if he be poor, and his hand cannot find the things aforesaid: he shall take a lamb for an offering for trespass, that the priest may pray for him, and a tenth part of flour tempered with oil for a sacrifice, and a sextary of oil: 14:22. And two turtles or two young pigeons, of which one may be for sin, and the other for a holocaust. 14:23. And he shall offer them on the eighth day of his purification to the priest, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony before the Lord. 14:24. And the priest receiving the lamb for trespass, and the sextary of oil, shall elevate them together. 14:25. And the lamb being immolated, he shall put of the blood thereof upon the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and the great toe of his right foot.
Lines 12157–12176
14:26. But he shall pour part of the oil into his own left hand, 14:27. And dipping the finger of his right hand in it, he shall sprinkle it seven times before the Lord. 14:28. And he shall touch the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot, in the place of the blood that was shed for trespass. 14:29. And the other part of the oil that is in his left hand, he shall pour upon the head of the purified person, that he may appease the Lord for him. 14:30. And he shall offer a turtle, or young pigeon: 14:31. One for trespass, and the other for a holocaust, with their libations. 14:32. This is the sacrifice of a leper, that is not able to have all things that appertain to his cleansing.
Lines 12178–12208
14:33. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 14:34. When you shall come into the land of Chanaan, which I will give you for a possession, if there be the plague of leprosy in a house: 14:35. He whose house it is, shall go and tell the priest, saying: It seemeth to me, that there is the plague of leprosy in my house, 14:36. And he shall command, that they carry forth all things out of the house, before he go into it, and see whether it have the leprosy, let all things become unclean that are in the house. And afterwards he shall go in to view the leprosy of the house. 14:37. And if he see in the walls thereof as it were little dints, disfigured with paleness or redness, and lower than all he rest: 14:38. He shall go out of the door of the house, and forthwith shut it up seven days, 14:39. And returning on the seventh day, he shall look upon it. If he find that the leprosy is spread, 14:40. He shall command, that the stones wherein the leprosy is, be taken out, and cast without the city into an unclean place: 14:41. And that the house be scraped on the inside round about, and the dust of the scrapings be scattered without the city into an unclean place: 14:42. And that other stones be laid in the place of them that were taken away, and the house be plastered with other mortar.
Lines 12210–12229
14:43. But if after the stones be taken out, and the dust scraped off, and it be plastered with other earth. 14:44. The priest going in perceive that the leprosy is returned, and the walls full of spots, it is a lasting leprosy, and the house is unclean. 14:45. And they shall destroy it forthwith, and shall cast the stones and timber thereof, and all the dust without the town into an unclean place. 14:46. He that entereth into the house when it is shut, shall be unclean until evening, 14:47. And he that sleepeth in it, and eateth any thing, shall wash his clothes. 14:48. But if the priest going in perceive that the leprosy is not spread in the house, after it was plastered again, he shall purify it, it being cured.
Lines 12231–12247
14:49. And for the purification thereof he shall take two sparrows, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. 14:50. And having immolated one sparrow in an earthen vessel, over living waters, 14:51. He shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living sparrow, and shall dip all in the blood of the sparrow that is immolated, and in the living water: and he shall sprinkle the house seven times. 14:52. And shall purify it as well with the blood of the sparrow, as with the living water, and with the living sparrow, and with the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet. 14:53. And when he hath let go the sparrow to fly freely away into the field, he shall pray for the house: and it shall be rightly cleansed.
Lines 12249–12256
14:54. This is the law of every kind of leprosy and stroke. 14:55. Of the leprosy of garments and houses, 14:56. Of a scar and of blisters breaking out of a shining spot, and when the colours are diversely changed: 14:57. That it may be known when a thing is clean or unclean.