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Levítico 14

VBL · Chapter 14/27

1El Señor le dijo a Moisés,

2“Estas son las normas relativas a los que han tenido una enfermedad de la piel cuando se declaran limpios habiendo sido llevados al sacerdote.

3El sacerdote debe salir del campamento e inspeccionar a la persona. Si la enfermedad de la piel se ha curado,

4el sacerdote hará que le traigan dos pájaros ceremoniales limpios, también algo de madera de cedro, hilo carmesí e hisopo, en nombre de la persona que se va a limpiar.

5“El sacerdote ordenará que se mate a uno de los pájaros sobre una vasija de arcilla llena de agua fresca.

6Tomarás el pájaro vivo junto con la madera de cedro, el hilo carmesí y el hisopo, y los mojará en la sangre del pájaro que fue matado sobre el agua fresca.

7Usará la sangre para rociar siete veces a la persona que está siendo limpiada de la enfermedad de la piel. Luego el sacerdote los declarará limpios y dejará que el pájaro vivo se vaya volando.

8“El que se limpia debe lavar su ropa, afeitarse todo el pelo y lavarse con agua; entonces se limpiará ceremonialmente. Después de eso pueden entrar en el campamento, pero deben permanecer fuera de su tienda durante siete días.

9El séptimo día se afeitarán todo el pelo: la cabeza, la barba, las cejas y el resto del cabello. Deben lavar su ropa y lavarse con agua, y estarán limpios.

10“El octavo día traerán dos corderos machos y una hembra, todos de un año de edad y sin defectos; una ofrenda de grano que consiste en tres décimos de una efa de la mejor harina mezclada con aceite de oliva, y un ‘tronco’ de aceite de oliva.

11El sacerdote que dirige la ceremonia presentará al Señor la persona a ser limpiada, junto con estas ofrendas, a la entrada del Tabernáculo de Reunión.

12El sacerdote tomará uno de los corderos machos y lo presentará como ofrenda por la culpa, junto con el tronco de aceite de oliva; y lo agitará ante el Señor como ofrenda mecida.

13“Luego degollará el cordero cerca del santuario donde se degüella la ofrenda por el pecado y el holocausto. La ofrenda por el pecado y la ofrenda por la culpa pertenecen al sacerdote; es muy sagrada.

14El sacerdote pondrá parte de la sangre de la ofrenda por la culpa en el lóbulo de la oreja derecha, en el pulgar derecho y en el dedo gordo del pie derecho de la persona que se está limpiando.

15El sacerdote echará un poco del tronco de aceite de oliva en su palma izquierda,

16mojará su dedo índice derecho en él, y con su dedo rociará un poco de aceite de oliva siete veces ante el Señor.

17El sacerdote usará entonces parte del resto del aceite de oliva que queda en su palma sobre la persona que se está limpiando, y lo pondrá sobre la sangre de la ofrenda de culpa. Esto estará en el lóbulo de su oreja derecha, en su pulgar derecho y en el dedo gordo de su pie derecho, sobre la sangre de la ofrenda de culpa.

18Lo que quede del aceite de oliva en su palma, el sacerdote lo pondrá sobre la cabeza de la persona que se está limpiando y luego lo hará justo ante el Señor.

19El sacerdote sacrificará la ofrenda por el pecado para hacer a la persona correcta, de modo que ahora esté limpia de su impureza. Después de eso, el sacerdote matará el holocausto

20y lo ofrecerá en el altar, junto con la ofrenda de grano, para enderezarlos, y estarán limpios.

21“Pero los que son pobres y no pueden pagar estas ofrendas deben traer un cordero macho como ofrenda de culpa para ser agitado para hacerlos rectos, junto con una décima parte de la mejor harina mezclada con aceite de oliva para una ofrenda de grano, un tronco de aceite de oliva,

22y dos tórtolas o dos pichones de paloma, lo que puedan pagar. Una se usará como ofrenda por el pecado y la otra como holocausto.

23“Al octavo día deben llevarlos al sacerdote a la entrada del Tabernáculo de Reunión ante el Señor para que los limpie.

24El sacerdote tomará el cordero para la ofrenda por la culpa, junto con el tronco de aceite de oliva, y los agitará como ofrenda mecida ante el Señor.

25Después de matar el cordero para la ofrenda por la culpa, el sacerdote tomará un poco de la sangre de la ofrenda por la culpa y la pondrá en el lóbulo de la oreja derecha del que se está limpiando, en el pulgar derecho y en el dedo gordo del pie derecho.

26“Entonces el sacerdote verterá un poco de aceite de oliva en su palma izquierda

27y con su dedo índice derecho, rociará un poco de aceite de su palma izquierda siete veces ante el Señor.

28El sacerdote pondrá también un poco de aceite de oliva en su palma, en el lóbulo de la oreja derecha de la persona que se está limpiando, en el pulgar derecho y en el dedo gordo del pie derecho, en los mismos lugares que la sangre de la ofrenda de culpa.

29Lo que quede del aceite de oliva en su palma, el sacerdote lo pondrá en la cabeza de la persona que se está limpiando y luego lo pondrá delante del Señor.

30Luego deberán sacrificar una de las tórtolas o palomas jóvenes, según sus posibilidades,

31una como ofrenda por el pecado y la otra como holocausto, junto con la ofrenda de grano. Así es como el sacerdote hará a la persona correcta y limpia ante el Señor.

32Estas son las normas para aquellos que tienen una enfermedad de la piel y no pueden permitirse las ofrendas habituales para hacer a la gente limpia”.

33Entonces el Señor les dijo a Moisés y a Aarón:

34“Cuando lleguen a Canaán, la tierra que yo les doy, si pongo un poco de moho en una casa y la contamino,

35el dueño de la casa debe venir y decirle al sacerdote: ‘Parece que mi casa tiene moho’.

36El sacerdote debe ordenar que se vacíe la casa antes de entrar a inspeccionar el moho, para que nada en la casa sea declarado impuro. Una vez hecho esto, el sacerdote debe entrar e inspeccionar la casa.

37Examinará la casa y verá si el moho de las paredes está hecho de hendiduras verdes o rojas que van bajo la superficie,

38el sacerdote saldrá a la puerta y sellará la casa durante siete días.

39Al séptimo día el sacerdote volverá e inspeccionará la casa de nuevo. Si el moho se ha extendido en las paredes,

40ordenará que las piedras afectadas se retiren y se eliminen en un área impura fuera de la ciudad.

41Luego ordenará que todo el yeso del interior de la casa sea raspado y arrojado en una zona impura fuera de la ciudad.

42Se deben usar diferentes piedras para reemplazar las que se han quitado, y se necesitará un nuevo yeso para volver a enlucir la casa.

43Si el moho vuelve y afecta de nuevo a la casa, incluso después de haber quitado las piedras y de haber raspado y vuelto a enlucir la casa,

44el sacerdote debe venir a inspeccionarla. Si ve que el moho se ha extendido en la casa, es un moho dañino; la casa está sucia.

45Debe ser demolida, y todas sus piedras, maderas y yeso deben ser tomadas y arrojadas en un área impura fuera de la ciudad.

46Cualquiera que entre en la casa durante cualquier tiempo que esté sellada será impuro hasta la noche.

47Quien duerma o coma en la casa debe lavar su ropa.

48“Sin embargo, si cuando el sacerdote venga a inspeccionarla y encuentra que el moho no ha reaparecido después de que la casa haya sido tapizada, declarará la casa limpia porque el moho ha desaparecido.

49Traerá dos pájaros, madera de cedro, hilo carmesí e hisopo para limpiar la casa.

50Matará a uno de los pájaros sobre una vasija de arcilla llena de agua fresca.

51Sumergirá el pájaro vivo, la madera de cedro, el hilo carmesí y el hisopo en la sangre del pájaro muerto y en el agua fresca, y rociará la casa siete veces.

52Limpiará la casa con la sangre del pájaro, el agua fresca, el pájaro vivo, la madera de cedro, el hisopo y el hilo carmesí.

53Luego dejará que el pájaro vivo se vaya volando fuera de la ciudad. Así es como hará la casa bien, y estará limpia.

54“Estas son las regulaciones para cualquier enfermedad infecciosa de la piel, para una infección de costra,

55para el moho en la ropa y en una casa,

56así como para una hinchazón, sarpullido o mancha.

57Se utilizan para decidir si algo está limpio o sucio. Estas son las normas relativas a las enfermedades de la piel y el moho”.

📖 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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