The House with the Spot
33 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 34 “When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put a spreading mildew in a house in the land of your possession, 35 then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘There seems to me to be some sort of plague in the house.’ 36 The priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest goes in to examine the plague, that all that is in the house not be made unclean. Afterward the priest shall go in to inspect the house. 37 He shall examine the plague; and behold, if the plague is in the walls of the house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, and it appears to be deeper than the wall, 38 then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days. 39 The priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the plague has spread in the walls of the house, 40 then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the plague, and cast them into an unclean place outside of the city. 41 He shall cause the inside of the house to be scraped all over. They shall pour out the mortar that they scraped off outside of the city into an unclean place. 42 They shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house. 43 “If the plague comes again, and breaks out in the house after he has taken out the stones, and after he has scraped the house, and after it was plastered, 44 then the priest shall come in and look; and behold, if the plague has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew in the house. It is unclean. 45 He shall break down the house, its stones, and its timber, and all the house’s mortar. He shall carry them out of the city into an unclean place. 46 “Moreover he who goes into the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening. 47 He who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes; and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes. 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. 49 To cleanse the house he shall take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. 50 He shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. 51 He 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. 52 He 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; 53 but 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.” 54 This is the law for any plague of leprosy, and for an itch, 55 and for the destructive mildew of a garment, and for a house, 56 and for a swelling, and for a scab, and for a bright spot; 57 to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy.
A building can be quarantined, repaired, and if necessary demolished, and the owner is told to empty it before the priest walks in.
The section opens with a phrase that dates everything in it to a future: when you have come into the land of Canaan Leviticus 14:34. People living in tents are given a law about houses.
And the same clause makes a striking claim about the cause: I put a spreading mildew in a house. The book does not treat the growth as an accident, and it does not explain the statement further.
What follows is the same procedure applied a third time — to a person, to a garment, and now to a building. The owner reports it in words that are carefully tentative: there seems to me to be some sort of plague in the house Leviticus 14:35. He does not diagnose. He reports what he has seen and lets the priest rule.
Then the most considerate instruction in the chapter. Before the priest enters, the priest shall command that they empty the house, and the reason is given: that all that is in the house not be made unclean Leviticus 14:36.
The inspection itself would render everything inside unclean, because the priest's verdict takes effect from the moment he pronounces it. So the furniture is carried out first, and a family whose house may be condemned does not also lose its possessions to a technicality. The law arranges its own procedure so that the ruling costs as little as possible.
The treatment is then graded exactly as it was for the garment. The house is shut up seven days Leviticus 14:38. If the mark has spread, the affected stones are taken out and the walls scraped, and the debris is carried to an unclean place outside of the city Leviticus 14:41. New stones are set in and the house is replastered Leviticus 14:42.
Only if it breaks out again after all that is the building demolished Leviticus 14:45.
Repair is attempted twice before destruction, and the sequence is the same one applied to a man: examine, wait, treat, wait, and remove only when nothing else has worked. In three chapters the law has run the same patient procedure over a person's body, a family's clothing, and a family's home.
And the closing summary lists all three together as one law Leviticus 14:54–57, which is how the book itself understands them.
settled What this mark means