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Context No. 105 of 4322 · Leviticus

Context · Reflection

Leviticus 14:48-57: in context

48“If the priest shall come in, and examine it, and behold, the plague hasn’t spread in the house, after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. 49To cleanse the house he shall take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. 50He shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. 51He shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. 52He shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, with the living bird, with the cedar wood, with the hyssop, and with the scarlet; 53but he shall let the living bird go out of the city into the open field. So shall he make atonement for the house; and it shall be clean.” 54This is the law for any plague of leprosy, and for an itch, 55and for the destructive mildew of a garment, and for a house, 56and for a swelling, and for a scab, and for a bright spot; 57to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy.

Leviticus 13 and 14 deal at length with a condition the text calls tsaraath, usually translated leprosy but covering a range of skin conditions, and then, unexpectedly, the same word applied to fabrics and to houses. This passage is the end of the house procedure.

The rules before it are practical. If a spreading discoloration appears in the walls of a house, the priest orders the house emptied before he inspects it, so that nothing inside becomes unclean by his verdict. The house is shut up seven days, the affected stones are pulled out and dumped outside the town, the walls are scraped and replastered. If it comes back, the house is demolished. This passage is the good outcome: the priest returns, the mark has not spread, and he pronounces the house clean.

Then the ritual. Two birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, hyssop. One bird is killed over fresh water in a clay pot, and the living bird is dipped in the blood and water and the house is sprinkled seven times, and then the living bird is released over the open field. A house that has just been declared fine still gets a ceremony, and the ceremony ends with something flying away. What have I gotten the all clear on and never marked in any way, so that some part of me is still braced for it?

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