Clean and Unclean

“You may eat any animal that has a split hoof, divided in two, and chews the cud. But there are some you must not eat, though they chew the cud or have a split hoof. The camel, the hyrax and the hare are unclean to you, because they chew the cud but don’t have a split hoof. The pig is unclean to you, because it has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud. Don’t eat their meat, and don’t touch their dead bodies. They are unclean to you.

“In the water, in the seas and the rivers, you may eat anything with fins and scales. But anything in the seas and rivers without fins and scales is disgusting to you, whatever kind it is, and you are to detest it. Don’t eat its meat, and treat its dead body as disgusting.”

Then the Lord named the birds the Israelites were to detest and not eat, because they were disgusting. There were twenty in all, among them the eagle and the vulture, every kind of raven, the owls, the gull, every kind of hawk, the stork, every kind of heron, and the bat.

“All flying insects that walk on all fours are disgusting to you,” he said, “every winged creature that has four feet. But you may eat the ones with long, jointed legs for hopping on the ground: every kind of locust, katydid, cricket and grasshopper.”

“Some of the small creatures that creep on the ground are unclean to you,” the Lord said. “They are the weasel, the rat, and several kinds of lizard, among them the gecko and the chameleon. Whoever touches one of them after it has died will be unclean until evening.

“If the dead body of one of them falls on anything made of wood, or on clothing, leather or a sack, anything used for work, that thing must be put into water. It will be unclean until evening, and then it will be clean. If one falls into a clay pot, everything in the pot is unclean, and you must break the pot. Food with water on it becomes unclean, and so does any drink in such a pot. An oven or a stove that part of a dead body falls on must be broken to pieces. They are unclean to you.

“But a spring, or a pit where water is collected, is clean. Even so, whatever touches the dead body is unclean. If part of a dead body falls on seed for planting, the seed is clean. But if someone has put water on the seed, and part of one falls on it, the seed is unclean to you.

“If an animal that you may eat dies, whoever touches its body will be unclean until evening. Whoever eats any of it, or carries it, must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening.

“Every creature that creeps on the ground is disgusting, whether it crawls on its belly, walks on all fours or has many feet. It must not be eaten. Don’t make yourselves disgusting or unclean with any of them.

“I am the Lord your God, so make yourselves holy, and be holy, for I am holy. Don’t let any creature that creeps on the ground make you unclean. I am the Lord, and I brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. So be holy, for I am holy.

“This is the law about animals and birds, about every creature that moves in the water, and every creature that creeps on the ground. It is for telling the unclean from the clean, and what may be eaten from what may not.”

If she gave birth to a girl, she was unclean for two weeks, as during her period. Then her time of being made clean from her bleeding went on for sixty-six days.

When her days of being made clean were over, whether for a son or a daughter, she was to bring the priest a year-old lamb as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering. She was to bring them to the door of the Tent of Meeting. The priest would make the offering in the Lord’s presence and make atonement for her, and she would be clean from her bleeding. This was the law for a mother, whether her baby was a boy or a girl.

If she couldn’t afford a lamb, she could bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons instead, a bird for each offering. The priest would make atonement for her, and she would be clean.

If it was a white spot that didn’t look deeper than the skin, and its hair hadn’t turned white, the priest would keep the person apart for seven days. Then, if the spot seemed to have stopped and hadn’t spread, the priest would keep him apart for seven more days. If by then it had faded and hadn’t spread, it was a scab. The priest would declare him clean, and he had to wash his clothes. If the scab spread after that, he had to come back to the priest, who would declare him unclean. It was leprosy.

A white swelling that had turned the hair white, with raw flesh in it, was leprosy that had been in the skin a long time. The priest had to declare the person unclean without keeping him apart, because he was already unclean. But if leprosy covered someone from head to foot and had all turned white, he was clean. Whenever raw flesh showed on him, he was unclean. Raw flesh was leprosy. If the raw flesh turned white again, he was clean.

A white swelling or a reddish-white spot might come up where a boil had healed, or where the skin had been burned. The priest looked at it the same way. If it was deeper than the skin, with white hair in it, it was leprosy. If it was dim instead, the priest kept the person apart for seven days. If it spread, the person was unclean. If it stayed where it was, it was the scar of the boil or the burn, and he was clean.

A man or a woman might have a sore on the head or in the beard. If it looked deeper than the skin, with thin yellow hair in it, it was an itching sore, the leprosy of the head or the beard. The priest had to declare the person unclean.

If the sore didn’t look deeper than the skin, and had no black hair in it, the priest would keep the person apart for seven days. If it hadn’t spread by then, the person was shaved, except over the sore, and kept apart seven more days. If it still hadn’t spread after those days, he was clean, and he was to wash his clothes. If it spread after he was declared clean, he was unclean. But if it stopped, and black hair grew in it, it was healed, and he was clean.

If a man or a woman had dull white spots on the skin, it was a harmless rash, and the person was clean. If a man’s hair had fallen out from the top of his head or the front, he was bald, and he was clean. But if a reddish-white patch showed where he was bald, looking like leprosy of the skin, it was leprosy breaking out there. The priest had to declare him unclean.

Anyone who had the sore of leprosy had to wear torn clothes, with his hair hanging loose. He was to cover his upper lip and call out, “Unclean! Unclean!” As long as he had the sore, he was unclean. He was to live alone, outside the camp.

If it hadn’t spread, the priest would have the thing washed and set it apart seven more days. If the mark hadn’t changed its color after the washing, and hadn’t spread, the thing was unclean and had to be burned. If the mark had faded, the priest was to tear it out of the cloth or the leather. If it showed up again, it was spreading, and the thing had to be burned. But if the mark went away when it was washed, the thing was washed a second time, and then it was clean.

That was the law for mildew in wool or linen, in the weave, or in leather, for declaring it clean or unclean.

If the leprosy had healed, the priest was to have two live, clean birds brought for the one being made clean, with cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop. He was to have one of the birds killed in a clay pot over running water. Then he would take the live bird, with the cedar wood, the yarn and the hyssop, and dip them all in the dead bird’s blood. He would sprinkle the one being made clean seven times, declare him clean, and let the live bird go into the open field.

Then the man had to wash his clothes, shave all his hair off and bathe in water, and he would be clean. He could come into the camp, but for seven days he was to stay outside his tent. On the seventh day he had to shave off every hair: the hair on his head, his beard and his eyebrows. He had to wash his clothes and bathe, and then he would be clean.

On the eighth day he would bring two male lambs and a year-old ewe lamb, all without a flaw. He would also bring three tenths of an ephah of fine flour, about seven quarts, mixed with oil for a meal offering. He would bring a log of oil too, about a cup and a quarter. The priest would have him stand in the Lord’s presence with all these things, at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

The priest was to offer one of the male lambs as a trespass offering. He was to wave it, with the log of oil, in the Lord’s presence as a wave offering. Then he was to kill it in the sanctuary, in the place where the sin offerings and the burnt offerings are killed. The trespass offering belongs to the priest, just as the sin offering does. It is most holy.

He would put some of the lamb’s blood on the tip of the man’s right ear, on his right thumb and on his right big toe. Then he would pour some of the oil into his own left palm, and sprinkle some of it with his right finger seven times in the Lord’s presence. He would put some of the oil on the man’s right ear, thumb and big toe, on top of the blood. He would put the rest on the man’s head, and make atonement for him in the Lord’s presence.

Then the priest would offer the sin offering, and after it the burnt offering and the meal offering on the altar. He would make atonement for the man, and the man would be clean.

Someone poor who couldn’t afford so much could bring one male lamb for a trespass offering. Along with it he would bring a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, a little over two quarts, mixed with oil, and a log of oil. He would also bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whichever he could afford, for a sin offering and a burnt offering. On the eighth day the priest would do with them all that he did with the larger offering, to make atonement for him. That was the law for someone with leprosy who couldn’t afford the offerings for his cleansing.

The priest was to have the house emptied before he went in to look, so that nothing in it would become unclean. If he found greenish or reddish hollow streaks in the walls that looked deeper than the wall, he would go out to the door of the house and close the house up for seven days.

On the seventh day the priest would come back and look. If the mildew had spread in the walls, he was to have the stones with the mildew taken out and thrown away in an unclean place outside the city. He was to have the inside of the house scraped all over. The mortar they scraped off was to be dumped outside the city too, in an unclean place. Other stones were to go in place of the old ones, and he was to take other mortar and plaster the house.

The mildew might break out again after the stones were replaced and the house was scraped and plastered. Then the priest had to come and look. If it had spread, it was a destructive mildew, and the house was unclean. He was to tear the house down, stones, timber, mortar and all, and carry it all out of the city to an unclean place.

Anyone who went into the house while it was closed up would be unclean until evening. Anyone who lay down in it or ate in it had to wash his clothes.

But if the mildew hadn’t spread after the house was plastered, the priest would declare the house clean, because the mildew was healed. To make it clean, he would take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop. He would kill one bird over running water. He would dip the live bird, the cedar wood, the yarn and the hyssop in the dead bird’s blood and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. Then he would let the live bird go, out in the open field outside the city. In this way he would make atonement for the house, and it would be clean.

That was the law of leprosy. It was for every kind of leprosy and itching sore, for mildew in clothing or in a house, and for a swelling, a scab or a bright spot. It was to teach when something is unclean and when it is clean.

Every bed he lay on and everything he sat on became unclean, and so did any saddle he rode on. A clay pot he touched had to be broken, and anything made of wood had to be rinsed in water.

Anyone who touched his bed or his body had to wash his clothes and bathe in water, and was unclean until evening. So did anyone who sat on something he had sat on, and anyone he spat on, or touched before he had rinsed his hands. So did anyone who carried something that had been under him. Anyone who touched such a thing was unclean until evening.

Once he was cleansed of his discharge, he was to count seven days, wash his clothes and bathe in running water, and then he would be clean. On the eighth day he had to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons into the Lord’s presence, at the door of the Tent of Meeting, and give them to the priest. The priest would offer one bird as a sin offering, and the second as a burnt offering. He would make atonement for the man because of his discharge.

When a man’s seed came out of his body, he had to bathe his whole body in water, and he was unclean until evening. Any clothing or leather with the seed on it had to be washed, and it was unclean until evening. When a man and a woman slept together and his seed came out, they both had to bathe, and they were unclean until evening.

When a woman had her monthly period, she was unclean for seven days, and anyone who touched her was unclean until evening. Everything she lay on or sat on during that time became unclean. Anyone who touched her bed, or anything she sat on, had to wash his clothes and bathe, and was unclean until evening.

If a man slept with her, and her monthly bleeding got on him, he was unclean for seven days, and every bed he lay on was unclean.

A woman might bleed for many days when it wasn’t her period, or her bleeding might go on past the time of her period. Then she was unclean for all the days it lasted, as during her period. Her bed and everything she sat on were unclean the same way. Anyone who touched them had to wash his clothes and bathe, and was unclean until evening.

Once she was cleansed of her bleeding, she was to count seven days, and after that she would be clean. On the eighth day she would bring the priest two turtledoves or two young pigeons at the door of the Tent of Meeting. The priest would offer them as he did for a man, and make atonement for her in the Lord’s presence.

“This is how you are to keep the Israelites apart from their uncleanness,” the Lord said, “so that they won’t die in their uncleanness when they make my tabernacle unclean, my tabernacle that is among them.”

That was the law for a discharge from a man’s or a woman’s body, for a man whose seed comes out of his body, for a woman during her period, and for a man who sleeps with a woman while she is unclean.