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Levítico 14

BLIVRE · Chapter 14/27

1E falou o SENHOR a Moisés, dizendo:

2Esta será a lei do leproso quando se limpar: Será trazido ao sacerdote:

3E o sacerdote sairá fora do acampamento; e olhará o sacerdote, e vendo que está sã a praga da lepra do leproso,

4O sacerdote mandará logo que se tomem para o que se purifica duas aves vivas, limpas, e pau de cedro, e carmesim, e hissopo;

5E mandará o sacerdote matar uma ave em um vaso de barro sobre águas vivas;

6Depois tomará a ave viva, e o pau de cedro, e o carmesim, e o hissopo, e o molhará com a ave viva no sangue da ave morta sobre as águas vivas:

7E espargirá sete vezes sobre o que se purifica da lepra, e lhe dará por limpo; e soltará a ave viva sobre a face do campo.

8E o que se purifica lavará suas roupas, e rapará todos os seus pelos, e se há de lavar com água, e será limpo: e depois entrará no acampamento, e morará fora de sua tenda sete dias.

9E será, que ao sétimo dia rapará todos os seus pelos, sua cabeça, e sua barba, e as sobrancelhas de seus olhos; finalmente, rapará todo seu pelo, e lavará suas roupas, e lavará sua carne em águas, e será limpo.

10E no oitavo dia tomará dois cordeiros sem defeito, e uma cordeira de ano sem mácula; e três décimos [de efa] de boa farinha para oferta amassada com azeite, e um logue de azeite.

11E o sacerdote que lhe purifica apresentará com aquelas coisas ao que se há de limpar diante do SENHOR, à porta do tabernáculo do testemunho:

12E tomará o sacerdote um cordeiro, e o oferecerá pela culpa, com o logue de azeite, e o moverá como oferta movida diante do SENHOR:

13E degolará o cordeiro no lugar onde degolam o sacrifício pelo pecado e o holocausto, no lugar do santuário: porque como o sacrifício pelo pecado, assim também o sacrifício pela culpa é do sacerdote: é coisa muito sagrada.

14E tomará o sacerdote do sangue do animal sacrificado pela culpa, e porá o sacerdote sobre a ponta da orelha direita do que se purifica, e sobre o polegar de sua mão direita, e sobre o polegar de seu pé direito.

15Também tomará o sacerdote do logue de azeite, e lançará sobre a palma de sua mão esquerda:

16E molhará seu dedo direito no azeite que tem em sua mão esquerda, e espargirá do azeite com seu dedo sete vezes diante do SENHOR:

17E do que restar do azeite que tem em sua mão, porá o sacerdote sobre a ponta da orelha direita do que se purifica, e sobre o polegar de sua mão direita, e sobre o polegar de seu pé direito, sobre o sangue da expiação pela culpa:

18E o que restar do azeite que tem em sua mão, porá sobre a cabeça do que se purifica: e fará o sacerdote expiação por ele diante do SENHOR.

19Oferecerá logo o sacerdote o sacrifício pelo pecado, e fará expiação pelo que se há de purificar de sua impureza, e depois degolará o holocausto:

20E fará subir o sacerdote o holocausto e a oferta de cereais sobre o altar. Assim fará o sacerdote expiação por ele, e será limpo.

21Mas se for pobre, que não alcançar sua mão a tanto, então tomará um cordeiro para ser oferecido como oferta movida pela culpa, para reconciliar-se, e um décimo [de efa] de boa farinha amassada com azeite para oferta de cereais, e um logue de azeite;

22E duas rolinhas, ou dois pombinhos, o que alcançar sua mão: e um será para expiação pelo pecado, e o outro para holocausto;

23As quais coisas trará ao oitavo dia de sua purificação ao sacerdote, à porta do tabernáculo do testemunho diante do SENHOR.

24E o sacerdote tomará o cordeiro da expiação pela culpa, e o logue de azeite, e o moverá o sacerdote como oferta movida diante do SENHOR;

25Logo degolará o cordeiro da culpa, e tomará o sacerdote do sangue da culpa, e porá sobre a ponta da orelha direita do que se purifica, e sobre o polegar de sua mão direita, e sobre o polegar de seu pé direito.

26E o sacerdote lançará do azeite sobre a palma de sua mão esquerda;

27E com seu dedo direito espargirá o sacerdote do azeite que tem em sua mão esquerda, sete vezes diante do SENHOR.

28Também porá o sacerdote do azeite que tem em sua mão sobre a ponta da orelha direita do que se purifica, e sobre o polegar de sua mão direita, e sobre o polegar de seu pé direito, no lugar do sangue da culpa.

29E o que sobrar do azeite que o sacerdote tem em sua mão, o porá sobre a cabeça do que se purifica, para reconciliá-lo diante do SENHOR.

30Também oferecerá uma das rolinhas, ou dos pombinhos, o que alcançar sua mão:

31O um do que alcançar sua mão, em expiação pelo pecado, e o outro em holocausto, ademais da oferta: e fará o sacerdote expiação pelo que se há de purificar, diante do SENHOR.

32Esta é a lei do que houver tido praga de lepra, cuja mão não alcançar o prescrito para purificar-se.

33E falou o SENHOR a Moisés e a Arão, dizendo:

34Quando houveres entrado na terra de Canaã, a qual eu vos dou em possessão, e puser eu praga de lepra em alguma casa da terra de vossa possessão,

35Virá aquele cuja for a casa, e dará aviso ao sacerdote, dizendo: Como praga apareceu em minha casa.

36Então mandará o sacerdote, e despejarão a casa antes que o sacerdote entre a olhar a praga, para que não seja contaminado tudo o que estiver na casa: e depois o sacerdote entrará a reconhecer a casa:

37E olhará a praga: e se se virem machas nas paredes da casa, cavidades esverdeadas ou vermelhas, as quais parecerem mais profundas que a parede,

38O sacerdote sairá da casa à porta dela, e fechará a casa por sete dias.

39E ao sétimo dia voltará o sacerdote, e olhará: e se a praga houver crescido nas paredes da casa,

40Então mandará o sacerdote, e arrancarão as pedras em que estiver a praga, e as lançarão fora da cidade, em lugar impuro:

41E fará raspar a casa por dentro ao redor, e derramarão o pó que rasparem fora da cidade em lugar impuro:

42E tomarão outras pedras, e as porão em lugar das pedras tiradas; e tomarão outro barro, e rebocarão a casa.

43E se a praga voltar a esverdear naquela casa, depois que fez arrancar as pedras, e raspar a casa, e depois que foi rebocada,

44Então o sacerdote entrará e olhará; e se parecer haver-se estendido a praga na casa, lepra roedora está na casa: impura é.

45Derrubará, portanto, a tal casa, suas pedras, e seus madeiros, e toda a mistura da casa; e o tirará fora da cidade a lugar impuro.

46E qualquer um que entrar naquela casa todos os dias que a mandou fechar, será impuro até à tarde.

47E o que dormir naquela casa, lavará suas roupas; também o que comer na casa, lavará suas roupas.

48Mas se entrar o sacerdote e olhar, e vir que a praga não se estendeu na casa depois que foi rebocada, o sacerdote dará a casa por limpa, porque a praga sarou.

49Então tomará para limpar a casa duas aves, e pau de cedro, e carmesim, e hissopo:

50E degolará uma ave em uma vasilha de barro sobre águas vivas:

51E tomará o pau de cedro, e o hissopo, e o carmesim, e a ave viva, e o molhará no sangue da ave morta e nas águas vivas, e espargirá a casa sete vezes:

52E purificará a casa com o sangue da ave, e com as águas vivas, e com a ave viva, e o pau de cedro, e o hissopo, e o carmesim:

53Logo soltará a ave viva fora da cidade sobre a face do campo: Assim fará expiação pela casa, e será limpa.

54Esta é a lei acerca de toda praga de lepra, e de tinha;

55E da lepra da roupa, e da casa;

56E acerca do inchaço, e da pústula, e da mancha branca:

57Para ensinar quando é impuro, e quando limpo. Esta é a lei tocante à lepra.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The purification ritual for a healed leper involves two birds, running water, cedar, hyssop, and scarlet thread, plus sacrifices on the eighth day. The chapter also addresses 'leprosy' in the walls of houses.

Explanation

The elaborate purification ritual — which included releasing a live bird after dipping it in the blood of the sacrificed bird — symbolized the passage from death (impurity, isolation) to life (reintegration into the community). The allowance of simpler sacrifices for the poor reappears here, reinforcing that God never makes grace inaccessible to the needy. The 'leprosy' in houses likely describes destructive fungus or mold in the stones, treated with the same quarantine rigor and, if necessary, demolition. The spiritual lesson: full restoration (from disease, from impurity, from exclusion) is possible, but it follows a process — and God cares as much about people as about the spaces where they live.

Fun facts

  • The ritual of the two birds — one killed, the other released alive — is considered by scholars to be a symbolic foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice and the new life he offers, though the text does not make that connection explicitly.
  • Hyssop (an aromatic plant) appears in several purification rituals in the Bible, including the first Passover in Egypt (Exodus 12:22) and Psalm 51:7, where David asks God to be 'purged with hyssop.'

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Levítico 14:1This opening formula introduces a new topic: no longer how to diagnose a skin condition, but how someone already healed officially returned to life in the community.
  2. Levítico 14:2The process began when the person themselves, believing they had healed, went to the priest to ask for confirmation — the initiative came from whoever wanted to return to normal community life.
  3. Levítico 14:3It was the priest who left the camp to examine the person, since they had been living isolated outside since the diagnosis in chapter 13 — the exam happened wherever the person was.
  4. Levítico 14:4The purification ritual used two birds, cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop, a plant: one bird was killed, and the other, dipped in its blood, was released alive into the open field. It’s a symbolic gesture of the impurity “flying away,” similar in structure to the goat released into the wilderness in chapter 16.
  5. Levítico 14:5The purification ritual began by slaughtering one bird inside a clay vessel over running water — the first step in a ceremony with two birds, one dead and one alive.
  6. Levítico 14:6Cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop were dipped, along with the live bird, into the blood of the slain bird and the water — a set of items that reappears later in the chapter to purify even houses.
  7. Levítico 14:7After being sprinkled seven times with this mixture, the person was declared clean, and the live bird was released into the open field — as if it carried away, flying, whatever remained of the impurity.
  8. Levítico 14:8Shaving off all the body hair, washing the clothes and the body, and still staying seven days outside their own tent — the process of returning to normal community life after a skin disease was gradual, in stages, not instant even once the skin was already healed.
  9. Levítico 14:9A week after the first ritual, the person shaved off all their body hair — head, beard, eyebrows, everything — washed their clothes, and bathed: a second cleansing stage before final reintegration.
  10. Levítico 14:10On the eighth day, the final stage: two male lambs, one ewe lamb, flour with oil, and a bit more oil — the package of offerings that closed the whole purification process.
  11. Levítico 14:11The priest presented the healed person, together with all these offerings, before the Lord, at the door of the tent — the moment when the purification finally became public and official.
  12. Levítico 14:12One of the lambs became the trespass offering, waved together with the oil before the Lord — the same back-and-forth gesture used in other offerings in the book.
  13. Levítico 14:13This lamb was slaughtered in the same place as the burnt offering and the sin offering, because the trespass offering was also “most holy” — the same restricted category already seen in earlier chapters.
  14. Levítico 14:14Putting blood on the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe of the healed person is the same gesture used to consecrate the priests in chapter 8. It probably marked the “extremities” of the body — what one hears, what one does, where one goes — as newly purified and ready to return to normal life.
  15. Levítico 14:15The priest poured some oil into his own left palm — the first step of a ritual using only oil, added to the blood already used before.
  16. Levítico 14:16With his right finger dipped in this oil, the priest sprinkled seven times before the Lord — the same gesture of ritual completeness, repeated with oil instead of blood.
  17. Levítico 14:17The rest of the oil went directly on top of the blood already placed on the ear, the thumb, and the big toe — this time oil and blood combined at the same points on the body.
  18. Levítico 14:18Whatever oil was left in the priest’s hand was poured on the head of the person, closing this part of the atonement ritual.
  19. Levítico 14:19After the oil ritual, the priest still had to make the sin offering for the person before moving on to the burnt offering — the purification process involved several offerings stacked one on top of another, not just one.
  20. Levítico 14:20The burnt offering and the grain offering closed the process at the altar — only after all these stages was the person, at last, officially declared clean.
  21. Levítico 14:21Just as with the sin offering, the value of the purification offering dropped for those without means — a lamb for those who could afford it, birds and a bit of flour for those who couldn’t. Ritual healing had no fixed price that would exclude the poor.
  22. Levítico 14:22Whoever couldn’t afford two lambs could bring two birds instead — the same logic of financial accessibility seen in other offerings, applied here to full purification.
  23. Levítico 14:23Just as with the more expensive version, everything was presented to the priest on the eighth day, at the door of the tent — the timeline of the process didn’t change, only the value of the offerings.
  24. Levítico 14:24Curiously, even in the cheaper version, the lamb for the trespass offering wasn’t replaced by a bird — only the sin offering and the burnt offering had a more affordable option.
  25. Levítico 14:25The same ritual of blood on the ear, the thumb, and the big toe repeated here, identical to the process for someone who could afford the full version.
  26. Levítico 14:26The priest poured oil into his own left palm, repeating the same step already seen in the more expensive version of the ritual.
  27. Levítico 14:27Seven sprinklings of oil before the Lord, with the right finger — the same gesture of ritual completeness, with no difference between rich and poor at this point in the process.
  28. Levítico 14:28The oil went over the blood already applied to the ear, the thumb, and the big toe — the same combination of oil and blood seen in the full version of the ritual.
  29. Levítico 14:29The rest of the oil went on the person’s head, completing the atonement — the process was identical to the more expensive version, just trading lambs for birds.
  30. Levítico 14:30It was time for the two birds: one of them was offered according to what the person could afford, closing the more economical part of the ritual.
  31. Levítico 14:31One bird became the sin offering, the other the burnt offering with the grain offering — the same set of offerings as the expensive version, just in birds instead of lambs.
  32. Levítico 14:32This verse formally closes the section: this was the specific law for anyone without enough resources to pay for the full purification.
  33. Levítico 14:33This instruction, given to Moses and Aaron together, already looks to the future: it would only make sense once the people entered Canaan and started living in real houses, no longer in tents in the wilderness.
  34. Levítico 14:34The “plague of leprosy” in a house is, in the most widely accepted reading, some kind of mold, fungus, or saltpeter that appears on the wall. The text warns that this would only happen after they entered Canaan, suggesting it’s tied to the stone houses of the region, unlike the tents used in the wilderness.
  35. Levítico 14:35The homeowner reported to the priest cautiously, “It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house” — confirming the diagnosis was up to the priest, not the resident.
  36. Levítico 14:36Before examining it, the priest had the house emptied out — that way the furniture and belongings wouldn’t automatically be contaminated along with the walls, avoiding unnecessary loss for the family.
  37. Levítico 14:37Greenish or reddish marks on the walls, looking deeper than the surface, were the same kind of visual sign used for skin and fabric — the examination standard now repeated in buildings.
  38. Levítico 14:38Once the suspicious sign was found, the priest shut up the house for seven days — the same quarantine-by-observation system applied earlier to people and clothing.
  39. Levítico 14:39On the seventh day the priest came back to check whether the mark on the walls had spread — the same decisive standard as always: growth or stability.
  40. Levítico 14:40If it had spread, the priest had the marked stones torn out and thrown outside the city, in a place set aside for unclean things.
  41. Levítico 14:41The house was scraped clean inside, and even the scraped-off dust had to be discarded outside the city — nothing contaminated could stay near the rest of the community.
  42. Levítico 14:42New stones replaced the old ones, and the house received fresh plaster — an attempt at complete repair before considering the house lost for good.
  43. Levítico 14:43But the text anticipates that, even after all this repair, the mark might come back — the system recognized that the problem sometimes persisted despite the attempt to fix it.
  44. Levítico 14:44If the mold came back after scraping the wall and replacing the contaminated stones, the whole house was torn down and the material thrown outside the city. The text treated recurring structural mold as a risk serious enough to justify destroying the building, not just cleaning the surface.
  45. Levítico 14:45If the plague came back even after the repair, the solution was to demolish the entire house — stones, timber, and plaster all went outside the city, the most extreme outcome of the whole diagnostic system in the book.
  46. Levítico 14:46Whoever entered the house while it was shut up in quarantine became unclean until evening — an extra precaution even for a quick visit.
  47. Levítico 14:47Sleeping or eating inside the quarantined house required washing one’s clothes afterward — an added requirement for anyone spending more time in there, not just passing through.
  48. Levítico 14:48If after replacing the stones and replastering the wall the mold didn’t return, the priest declared the house clean. It shows the whole process was reversible: most cases were resolved with repair, and only the persistent ones ended in demolition.
  49. Levítico 14:49When the house was saved through repair, it went through the same purification ritual used for a healed person: two birds, cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop.
  50. Levítico 14:50One bird was slaughtered in a clay vessel over running water — the same first step of the personal purification ritual, now applied to the house.
  51. Levítico 14:51Cedar, hyssop, scarlet thread, and the live bird were dipped in the mixture of blood and water, and the house was sprinkled seven times — the same kit of materials reused from the purification of people.
  52. Levítico 14:52The house was “atoned for” with this combination of bird’s blood, running water, a live bird, cedar, hyssop, and scarlet thread — the same elements, now used on a building instead of a body.
  53. Levítico 14:53The live bird was released outside the city, into the open field, completing the atonement of the house — the same symbolic gesture of “carrying away” the impurity used in the purification of people.
  54. Levítico 14:54This verse begins the chapter’s final summary, gathering together all the variations of skin and scalp conditions covered so far.
  55. Levítico 14:55The summary goes on to include the version for clothing and for houses — showing that the same name and the same examination logic covered situations quite different from one another.
  56. Levítico 14:56The list of skin signs — swelling, scab, bright spot — closes the summary, recalling the several distinct conditions that went through the same diagnostic process by the priest.
  57. Levítico 14:57The chapter ends with the same kind of sentence used at the end of chapter 11: the whole purpose of this was to teach the difference between what was pure and what was impure, in every specific situation.

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