If a person is reported to have recovered from their skin disease then a priest should go outside the camp to check. With the person's cure confirmed the priest will require 2 live birds together with cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop so as to confirm the cleansing. The priest will kill one bird over fresh water and dip the other bird and other ingredients in the dead bird's blood. The priest will then sprinkle the blood mixture on the cured person 7 times, pronouncing him clean, and release the live bird into the wild. Then the person shaves off all his hair, washes his clothes and bathes, but stays outside of his tent for 7 days.
On the 8th day he must go to the tabernacle taking 2 male lambs and 1 ewe lamb, together with fine flour and oil, to offer as sacrifices before God. The priest should put some blood from the guilt offering on the right ear, right thumb and right big toe of the person being cleansed, before putting oil on the person in the same places. If the person is poor their cleansing sacrifices can be replaced with one lamb plus 2 doves or pigeons. Their sacrifices will make atonement before the Lord on behalf of the one being cleansed.
Finally the cleansing of dreaded mildew is prescribed when a priest goes to an affected house for inspection. If he sees that the mildew is greenish and reddish going deep then he will have the house shut up for 7 days. He then will re-inspect and scrape and remove stones as necessary (this is clearly a later addition to the text as the Israelites were living in tents) but if this doesn't fix it the house is unclean and must be destroyed. However if a house clears up the mildew returning it to normal and clean then the same 2-bird ritual will be carried out as a cleansing right seen earlier in the chapter, killing one bird and releasing the other one into the wild. It is a beautiful symbol of freedom and new life away from uncleanliness.
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