Leviticus 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Moses the ceremony for the day a person with the skin disease is declared clean: the priest examines him outside the camp, uses two birds with cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, and the man washes, shaves, and waits seven days. On the eighth day he brings lambs, flour, and oil, and blood and oil are put on his right ear, thumb, and big toe; a smaller set of offerings is listed for a person who is poor. The LORD then speaks to Moses and Aaron about mildew that he puts in a house in Canaan, giving rules for inspecting it, shutting the house up, replacing stones and plaster, tearing the house down if the mildew spreads, and cleansing a house with the two-bird ceremony. The chapter closes by stating that these laws cover skin disease, mildew in cloth and houses, swellings, scabs, and bright spots, and teach when a thing is clean or unclean.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • The LORD spoke to Moses.
2. 14:2
   • This is the law of the person with the skin disease on the day of his cleansing.
   • The person shall be brought to the priest.
3. 14:3
   • The priest shall go outside the camp.
   • The priest shall examine him.
   • The condition is that the disease-mark has been healed in the afflicted person.
4. 14:4
   • The priest shall give orders to take, for the one being cleansed, two living clean birds.
   • The priest shall give orders to take cedar wood.
   • The priest shall give orders to take scarlet material.
   • The priest shall give orders to take hyssop.
5. 14:5
   • The priest shall give orders that one of the birds be slaughtered.
   • The bird is to be slaughtered into an earthen vessel.
   • The slaughtering is to be over fresh flowing water.
6. 14:6
   • He shall take the living bird.
   • He shall take the cedar wood, the scarlet material, and the hyssop.
   • He shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the slaughtered bird.
   • The blood is over the fresh flowing water.
7. 14:7
   • He shall sprinkle seven times on the one being cleansed from the disease.
   • He shall pronounce him clean.
   • He shall release the living bird over the open field.
8. 14:8
   • The one being cleansed shall wash his clothes.
   • He shall shave off all his hair.
   • He shall bathe in water.
   • He shall then be clean.
   • After that he shall come into the camp.
   • He shall stay outside his tent seven days.
9. 14:9
   • On the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair.
   • He shall shave his head, his beard, and his eyebrows.
   • He shall shave off all his hair.
   • He shall wash his clothes.
   • He shall bathe his body in water.
   • He shall be clean.
10. 14:10
    • On the eighth day he shall take two unblemished male lambs.
    • He shall take one unblemished ewe lamb a year old.
    • He shall take three tenth-measures of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering.
    • He shall take one log of oil.
11. 14:11
    • The priest who performs the cleansing shall present the man being cleansed and the offerings.
    • The presentation is before the LORD.
    • The presentation is at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
12. 14:12
    • The priest shall take one of the male lambs.
    • The priest shall offer it as a guilt offering.
    • The priest shall take the log of oil.
    • The priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.
13. 14:13
    • He shall slaughter the lamb in the place where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered.
    • That place is in the holy place.
    • The guilt offering belongs to the priest as the sin offering does.
    • It is most holy.
14. 14:14
    • The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering.
    • The priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed.
    • The priest shall put it on the thumb of his right hand.
    • The priest shall put it on the big toe of his right foot.
15. 14:15
    • The priest shall take some of the log of oil.
    • The priest shall pour it into his own left palm.
16. 14:16
    • The priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left palm.
    • The priest shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the LORD.
17. 14:17
    • Of the rest of the oil in his palm the priest shall put some on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed.
    • He shall put some on the thumb of his right hand.
    • He shall put some on the big toe of his right foot.
    • This oil is put on top of the blood of the guilt offering.
18. 14:18
    • The remainder of the oil in the priest's palm he shall put on the head of the one being cleansed.
    • The priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD.
19. 14:19
    • The priest shall offer the sin offering.
    • The priest shall make atonement for the one being cleansed from his uncleanness.
    • Afterward he shall slaughter the burnt offering.
20. 14:20
    • The priest shall offer up the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar.
    • The priest shall make atonement for him.
    • He shall be clean.
21. 14:21
    • The condition is that the man is poor and cannot afford so much.
    • Then he shall take one male lamb as a guilt offering to be waved.
    • The purpose is to make atonement for him.
    • He shall take one tenth-measure of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering.
    • He shall take a log of oil.
22. 14:22
    • He shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whichever he can afford.
    • One shall be a sin offering.
    • The other shall be a burnt offering.
23. 14:23
    • He shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing to the priest.
    • He shall bring them to the entrance of the tent of meeting.
    • He shall bring them before the LORD.
24. 14:24
    • The priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering and the log of oil.
    • The priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.
25. 14:25
    • He shall slaughter the lamb of the guilt offering.
    • The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering.
    • He shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed.
    • He shall put it on the thumb of his right hand.
    • He shall put it on the big toe of his right foot.
26. 14:26
    • The priest shall pour some of the oil into his own left palm.
27. 14:27
    • The priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left palm.
    • He shall sprinkle seven times before the LORD.
28. 14:28
    • The priest shall put some of the oil in his palm on the lobe of the right ear of the one being cleansed.
    • He shall put some on the thumb of his right hand.
    • He shall put some on the big toe of his right foot.
    • This is on the place of the blood of the guilt offering.
29. 14:29
    • The rest of the oil in the priest's palm he shall put on the head of the one being cleansed.
    • This is to make atonement for him before the LORD.
30. 14:30
    • He shall offer one of the turtledoves or of the young pigeons.
    • It is whichever he can afford.
31. 14:31
    • It is whatever he is able to afford.
    • The one is for a sin offering.
    • The other is for a burnt offering.
    • They are offered along with the grain offering.
    • The priest shall make atonement for the one being cleansed before the LORD.
32. 14:32
    • This is the law for the one who has the disease-mark of the skin disease.
    • It applies to one whose means do not suffice for his cleansing.
33. 14:33
    • The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron.
34. 14:34
    • The condition is that they come into the land of Canaan.
    • The LORD is giving that land to them as a possession.
    • The LORD will put a disease-mark of mold in a house of the land of their possession.
35. 14:35
    • The owner of the house shall come and tell the priest.
    • He shall say that something like a disease-mark has appeared to him in the house.
36. 14:36
    • The priest shall command that they empty the house.
    • This is to be done before the priest goes in to examine the mark.
    • The purpose is that nothing in the house become unclean.
    • Afterward the priest shall go in to examine the house.
37. 14:37
    • He shall examine the mark.
    • The condition is that the mark is in the walls of the house.
    • The condition is that the mark consists of greenish or reddish depressions.
    • The condition is that their appearance is lower than the surface of the wall.
38. 14:38
    • The priest shall go out of the house to the entrance of the house.
    • The priest shall shut up the house seven days.
39. 14:39
    • The priest shall return on the seventh day.
    • The priest shall examine it.
    • The condition is that the mark has spread in the walls of the house.
40. 14:40
    • The priest shall command that they pull out the stones in which the mark is.
    • They shall throw the stones outside the city into an unclean place.
41. 14:41
    • He shall have the house scraped inside all around.
    • They shall dump the scraped-off material outside the city into an unclean place.
42. 14:42
    • They shall take other stones.
    • They shall put them in place of the removed stones.
    • He shall take other mortar.
    • He shall plaster the house.
43. 14:43
    • The condition is that the mark returns and breaks out in the house.
    • This is after the stones have been pulled out.
    • This is after the house has been scraped.
    • This is after the house has been plastered.
44. 14:44
    • The priest shall come and examine it.
    • The condition is that the mark has spread in the house.
    • It is a malignant mold in the house.
    • The house is unclean.
45. 14:45
    • He shall tear down the house.
    • He shall tear down its stones, its timbers, and all the mortar of the house.
    • He shall carry them out of the city to an unclean place.
46. 14:46
    • Anyone who enters the house during any of the days it is shut up shall be unclean until evening.
47. 14:47
    • Anyone who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes.
    • Anyone who eats in the house shall wash his clothes.
48. 14:48
    • The condition is that the priest comes in and examines it.
    • The condition is that the mark has not spread in the house after the house was plastered.
    • Then the priest shall pronounce the house clean.
    • The reason is that the mark is healed.
49. 14:49
    • He shall take two birds to purify the house.
    • He shall take cedar wood.
    • He shall take scarlet material.
    • He shall take hyssop.
50. 14:50
    • He shall slaughter one of the birds into an earthen vessel.
    • The slaughtering is over fresh flowing water.
51. 14:51
    • He shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet material, and the living bird.
    • He shall dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and in the fresh flowing water.
    • He shall sprinkle the house seven times.
52. 14:52
    • He shall purify the house with the blood of the bird.
    • He shall purify it with the fresh flowing water.
    • He shall purify it with the living bird.
    • He shall purify it with the cedar wood.
    • He shall purify it with the hyssop.
    • He shall purify it with the scarlet material.
53. 14:53
    • He shall release the living bird outside the city into the open field.
    • He shall make atonement for the house.
    • The house shall be clean.
54. 14:54
    • This is the law for every disease-mark of the skin disease.
    • This is the law for the scaly outbreak.
55. 14:55
    • This is the law for the mold of a garment.
    • This is the law for the mold of a house.
56. 14:56
    • This is the law for a swelling.
    • This is the law for a scab.
    • This is the law for a bright spot.
57. 14:57
    • The purpose is to teach when a thing is unclean and when it is clean.
    • This is the law of the skin disease.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

14:1

"The LORD" in small capitals stands for God's personal name in Hebrew, written with four consonants usually given as YHWH. Ancient Jewish readers did not say it aloud, and English Bibles from 1611 onward print LORD in place of it.

14:2

The Hebrew word behind "leper" (tsara'at) is not modern leprosy (Hansen's disease). It covers a range of visible, scaly or discolouring conditions of the skin, and the same word is used later in this chapter of fabric and of walls. "Clean" and "unclean" are not about dirt or morality either: they are a ritual status that decides whether a person may enter the camp, touch others, and take part in worship.

14:3

The priest here acts as inspector rather than healer. Nothing in the ritual treats the disease; the ceremony begins only once the condition has already cleared. The man is outside the camp because that is where an unclean person had to live (Leviticus 13:46), so the priest must go out to him.

14:4

"Clean" birds are species permitted for food and sacrifice under Israel's dietary rules; the text does not say which. Cedar wood was prized as rot-resistant and aromatic. "Scarlet" is wool dyed crimson with a dye taken from an insect. Hyssop is a small bushy herb whose sprigs made a natural brush for sprinkling; the same three items appear in the red-heifer rite in Numbers 19.

14:5

"Running water" translates a phrase meaning literally "living water", fresh water from a spring or stream, as opposed to still water from a cistern. An earthen (unglazed clay) pot was cheap and porous; such vessels absorbed what they held and, once used in this way, could not be reused.

14:7

Seven is the standard number for a complete ritual act in Leviticus. "Pronounce him clean" is an official verdict, not a wish: the priest's word is what legally restores the man to the camp, to worship and to ordinary life with other people.

14:8

Washing the clothes and bathing the body were the standard steps for moving from unclean to clean status. Shaving the whole body removes any trace of the old growth of hair. Staying outside his own tent for seven days means he is back among the people but not yet resuming household life, including relations with his wife.

14:9

A second complete shaving, a week after the first, with the eyebrows named specifically: the point is that no hair from the period of the disease remains.

14:10

An ephah was a dry measure of roughly twenty liters (about half a bushel), so three-tenths is around six liters of flour (enough for a substantial batch of bread. A log was the smallest liquid measure, about a third of a liter (roughly half a pint). A grain offering (the KJV's "meat offering", using "meat" in its old sense of food generally) was flour with oil, part burned and the rest eaten by the priests. "Without blemish" means physically unflawed) no injury, sore or defect.

14:11

The "tabernacle of the congregation" is the tent of meeting, the portable sanctuary Israel carried through the wilderness. The "door" is the entrance to its courtyard, which is as close to the sanctuary as an ordinary Israelite could come.

14:12

The guilt offering (KJV "trespass offering") was the sacrifice brought when someone had encroached on what belonged to God or to another person and owed compensation. A wave offering was a formal gesture of presentation, the item was held out or moved before the LORD to mark it as handed over, after which it passed to the priests.

14:13

"The holy place" here means the sacred precinct beside the altar in the courtyard, not the inner room of the tent. "Most holy" is the higher of two grades of offering: what is most holy may be eaten only by male priests and only within the sanctuary area.

14:14

Blood on the right earlobe, right thumb and right big toe marks the extremities of the body, in effect the whole person. The identical gesture is used at the ordination of Aaron and his sons in Leviticus 8:23–24.

14:15

The oil is olive oil, squeezed from olives. People poured it on someone being set apart for a special job.

14:18

"Atonement" translates a Hebrew verb whose root sense is to wipe clean, or to cover over, or to pay a ransom; the exact shade is debated. In these ritual laws it describes the priest's act of removing impurity so that a person or object is restored to clean status.

14:19

The sin offering (Hebrew chattat, often rendered "purification offering") deals with impurity rather than deliberate wrongdoing; its blood cleanses the sanctuary and its worshipers. A burnt offering was the sacrifice consumed entirely on the altar, with no portion eaten by anyone.

14:20

An altar is a big stone table. Gifts to God were burned on top of it.

14:21

The law sets a cheaper alternative rather than excluding the poor: one lamb instead of three, and a third as much flour. Birds were the least costly animals that could be offered.

14:22

Turtledoves are small wild doves; along with young pigeons they were the cheapest creatures acceptable for sacrifice, catchable or raised without much cost.

14:32

"Whose hand is not able to get" is a Hebrew idiom meaning simply that he cannot afford it.

14:33

Aaron was Moses' brother. He was the first chief priest.

14:34

The Hebrew uses the same word for what appears on the walls as for the skin disease, which is why the KJV calls both "leprosy"; a growth in stone and plaster is usually taken to be mold, fungus, or crystallising mineral salts. Note also that the law is given in advance: it concerns permanent stone houses in Canaan, not the tents Israel is living in as it is spoken.

14:35

The owner is made to speak tentatively, "something like" a disease, rather than declare it himself. Only the priest may make the ruling.

14:36

Once the priest pronounces the house unclean, everything inside it becomes unclean too. Emptying it first is a practical protection for the owner's possessions.

14:37

The KJV's "hollow strakes" means sunken streaks or pitted patches. The test is whether the discoloured area lies below the surface of the wall rather than merely on it, the same test applied to skin in Leviticus 13.

14:40

An "unclean place" is a designated dumping ground outside the town where unclean material could be discarded without contaminating anything in use.

14:41

The plaster or lime coating on the inside face of the walls is scraped back to the stone; the scrapings, being contaminated, are carried out with the stones.

14:42

"Morter" and "plaister" are simply the 1611 spellings of mortar and plaster.

14:44

The KJV's "fretting" means eating away or corroding. The Hebrew describes a growth that has proved persistent and malignant rather than a passing stain.

14:45

The whole house comes down: stones, roof beams and mortar are all carted outside the city. For a family this is a total loss of their most valuable possession, which shows how seriously the law treats a growth that keeps returning.

14:46

"Unclean until evening" is the mildest grade of impurity: it lapses at sunset on its own, without any sacrifice.

14:47

Sleeping or eating in the house means longer and closer contact than simply stepping inside, so it carries the extra requirement of washing your clothes.

14:49

This is the same ceremony used for the healed person in verses 4 through 7, now done for a house.

14:53

Letting the bird fly away carried the uncleanness out of the city and away from the people.

14:54

"Scall" is the KJV's word for a scaly eruption on the head or in the beard, the condition set out in Leviticus 13:29–37.

14:55

Mold could grow in cloth too. The rule before this one was about clothes.

14:56

"Rising", "scab" and "bright spot" are the technical terms for three appearances of the skin catalogued in Leviticus 13: a raised swelling, a scaly patch, and a shiny discoloured mark.

14:57

The Hebrew word rendered "law" (torah) means instruction or ruling. These chapters are a decision procedure for the priest, how to tell clean from unclean, rather than a set of commands laid on the ordinary person.