Cleansing a Home

When the mildew is gone after replastering, the priest declares the house clean. He then purifies it with birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, sprinkling it and releasing the live bird in the open field.

I⁴⁸f, however, the priest comes and inspects it, and the mildew has not spread after the house has been replastered, he shall pronounce the house clean, because the mildew is gone. ⁴⁹He is to take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop to purify the house; ⁵⁰and he shall slaughter one of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot. ⁵¹Then he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn, and the live bird, dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵²And he shall cleanse the house with the bird’s blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet yarn. ⁵³Finally, he is to release the live bird into the open fields outside the city. In this way he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.

The chapter ends by naming this as the law for skin diseases, outbreaks, mildew in clothing or houses, and visible signs like swellings, rashes, and spots. Its purpose is to determine what is clean and what is unclean.

⁵⁴This is the law for any infectious skin disease, for a scaly outbreak, ⁵⁵for mildew in clothing or in a house, ⁵⁶and for a swelling, rash, or spot, ⁵⁷to determine when something is clean or unclean. This is the law regarding skin diseases and mildew. ”