Leviticus 14:33-53

33Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

34“When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew.

35The owner of such a house must then go to the priest and say, ‘It appears that my house has some kind of mildew.’

36Before the priest goes in to inspect the house, he must have the house emptied so nothing inside will be pronounced ceremonially unclean.

37Then the priest will go in and examine the mildew on the walls. If he finds greenish or reddish streaks and the contamination appears to go deeper than the wall’s surface,

38the priest will step outside the door and put the house in quarantine for seven days.

39On the seventh day the priest must return for another inspection. If he finds that the mildew on the walls of the house has spread,

40the priest must order that the stones from those areas be removed. The contaminated material will then be taken outside the town to an area designated as ceremonially unclean.

41Next the inside walls of the entire house must be scraped thoroughly and the scrapings dumped in the unclean place outside the town.

42Other stones will be brought in to replace the ones that were removed, and the walls will be replastered.

43“But if the mildew reappears after all the stones have been replaced and the house has been scraped and replastered,

44the priest must return and inspect the house again. If he finds that the mildew has spread, the walls are clearly contaminated with a serious mildew, and the house is defiled.

45It must be torn down, and all its stones, timbers, and plaster must be carried out of town to the place designated as ceremonially unclean.

46Those who enter the house during the period of quarantine will be ceremonially unclean until evening,

47and all who sleep or eat in the house must wash their clothing.

48“But if the priest returns for his inspection and finds that the mildew has not reappeared in the house after the fresh plastering, he will pronounce it clean because the mildew is clearly gone.

49To purify the house the priest must take two birds, a stick of cedar, some scarlet yarn, and a hyssop branch.

50He will slaughter one of the birds over a clay pot filled with fresh water.

51He will take the cedar stick, the hyssop branch, the scarlet yarn, and the live bird, and dip them into the blood of the slaughtered bird and into the fresh water. Then he will sprinkle the house seven times.

52When the priest has purified the house in exactly this way,

53he will release the live bird in the open fields outside the town. Through this process, the priest will purify the house, and it will be ceremonially clean.