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Tanach (JPS): Leviticus: Leviticus Chapter 14

Book of ChroniclesHebrew Bible TranslationJewish Publication Society Bible

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This is a passage of biblical law from Leviticus (chapter 14), drawn from the Hebrew Bible (Tanach) in the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation. It prescribes detailed ritual procedures for purifying a person healed of leprosy (tzara'at), covering a two-stage process: an initial ceremony outside the camp involving two birds, cedar-wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop, followed by an eight-day sequence of shaving, bathing, and animal sacrifices at the sanctuary. The text is notably attentive to economic justice, providing a scaled-down version of the sacrificial requirements for those who cannot afford the full set of offerings — substituting turtledoves for additional lambs. The passage then extends the same diagnostic and purification logic to buildings, detailing how a priest should inspect a house for plague-like discoloration, quarantine it, order infected stones removed, and ultimately demolish it if the affliction persists, using an identical bird-and-hyssop cleansing rite for houses declared clean. The overall framework treats leprosy not merely as a medical condition but as a ritual impurity requiring priestly adjudication and atonement before the LORD, with the priest functioning simultaneously as diagnostician, ritual officiant, and mediator of divine cleansing.

Tanach (JPS): Leviticus: Leviticus Chapter 14

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