Laws for Cleansing Lepers

¹The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. sHe shall be brought to the priest, ³and the priest shall go tout of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, ⁴the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live1 clean birds and ucedarwood and vscarlet yarn and whyssop. ⁵And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh2 water. ⁶He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. ⁷And he shall xsprinkle it yseven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall zlet the living bird go ainto the open field. ⁸And he who is to be cleansed bshall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but clive outside his tent seven days. ⁹And don the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair from his head, his beard, and his eyebrows. He shall shave off all his hair, and then he bshall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.

¹⁰“And on the eighth day he eshall take two male lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish, and a fgrain offering of three tenths of an ephah3 of fine flour mixed with oil, and one log4 of oil. ¹¹And the priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed and these things before the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ¹²And the priest shall take one of the male lambs and goffer it for a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, and hwave them for a wave offering before the Lord. ¹³And he shall kill the lamb iin the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary. For jthe guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; kit is most holy. ¹⁴The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it lon the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. ¹⁵Then the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand ¹⁶and dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and sprinkle some oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. ¹⁷And some of the oil that remains in his hand the priest shall put on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering. ¹⁸And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. mThen the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord. ¹⁹The priest shall offer the sin offering, to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. ²⁰And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the fgrain offering on the altar. mThus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

²¹“But nif he is poor and cannot afford so much, then he shall take one male lamb for a guilt offering hto be waved, to make atonement for him, and a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil; ²²oalso two turtledoves or two pigeons, whichever he can afford. The one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. ²³pAnd on the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, before the Lord. ²⁴qAnd the priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. ²⁵And he shall kill the lamb of the guilt offering. rAnd the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. ²⁶And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand, ²⁷and shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord. ²⁸And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, in the place where the blood of the guilt offering was put. ²⁹And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the Lord. ³⁰And he shall offer, of the sturtledoves or pigeons, whichever he can afford, ³¹one5 for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, along with a grain offering. mAnd the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for him who is being cleansed. ³²This is the law for him in whom is a case of leprous disease, who cannot afford tthe offerings for his cleansing.”

Laws for Cleansing Houses

³³The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ³⁴“When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you ufor a possession, and I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession, ³⁵then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘There seems to me to be some case of vdisease in my house.’ ³⁶Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes to examine the disease, lest all that is in the house be declared unclean. And afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. ³⁷And he shall examine the disease. And if the disease is in the walls of the house with greenish or reddish spots, and if it appears to be deeper than the surface, ³⁸then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days. ³⁹And the priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the disease has spread in the walls of the house, ⁴⁰then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the disease and throw them into an unclean place outside the city. ⁴¹And he shall have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city. ⁴²Then they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other plaster and plaster the house.

⁴³“If the disease breaks out again in the house, after he has taken out the stones and scraped the house and plastered it, ⁴⁴then the priest shall go and look. And if the disease has spread in the house, it is a wpersistent leprous disease in the house; it is unclean. ⁴⁵And he shall break down the house, its stones and timber and all the plaster of the house, and he shall carry them out of the city to an unclean place. ⁴⁶Moreover, whoever enters the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening, ⁴⁷and whoever sleeps in the house xshall wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

⁴⁸“But if the priest comes and looks, and if the disease has not spread in the house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, for the disease is healed. ⁴⁹And for the ycleansing of the house he shall take ztwo small birds, with cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop, ⁵⁰and shall kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water ⁵¹and shall take the cedarwood and the hyssop and the scarlet yarn, along with the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the fresh water and sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵²Thus he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the fresh water and with the live bird and with the cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn. ⁵³And he shall let the live bird go out of the city ainto the open country. So he shall bmake atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.”

⁵⁴This is the law for any case of leprous disease: for can itch, ⁵⁵for dleprous disease in a garment or in ea house, ⁵⁶and ffor a swelling or an eruption or a spot, ⁵⁷to gshow when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law for leprous disease.

In the Shadow of Your Wings

A fPrayer of David.

¹Hear a just cause, O Lord; gattend to my cry!

Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

²From your presence hlet my vindication come!

Let your eyes behold the right!

³You have itried my heart, you have jvisited me by knight,

you have ltested me, and you will find nothing;

I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.

⁴With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips

I have avoided the ways of the violent.

⁵My steps have mheld fast to your paths;

my feet have not slipped.

⁶I ncall upon you, for you will answer me, O God;

oincline your ear to me; hear my words.

⁷pWondrously show1 your steadfast love,

O Savior of those who seek refuge

from qtheir adversaries at your right hand.

⁸Keep me as rthe apple of your eye;

hide me in sthe shadow of your wings,

⁹from the wicked who do me violence,

my deadly enemies who tsurround me.

¹⁰uThey close their hearts to pity;

with their mouths they vspeak arrogantly.

¹¹They have now surrounded our wsteps;

they set their eyes to xcast us to the ground.

¹²He is like a lion eager to tear,

as a young lion ylurking in ambush.

¹³Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him!

Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,

¹⁴from men by your hand, O Lord,

from zmen of the world whose aportion is in this life.2

You fill their womb with treasure;3

they are satisfied with bchildren,

and they leave their abundance to their infants.

¹⁵As for me, I shall cbehold your face in righteousness;

when I dawake, I shall be esatisfied with your likeness.

¹cThe wicked flee when no one pursues,

but dthe righteous are bold as a lion.

²When a land transgresses, eit has many rulers,

but with a man of understanding and knowledge,

its stability will long continue.

³fA poor man who oppresses the poor

is a beating rain that leaves no food.

⁴Those who forsake the law gpraise the wicked,

but those who keep the law hstrive against them.

⁵Evil men ido not understand justice,

but those who seek the Lord junderstand it completely.

⁶kBetter is a poor man who lwalks in his integrity

than a rich man who is lcrooked in his ways.

⁷The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding,

but ma companion of gluttons shames his father.

⁸Whoever multiplies his wealth nby interest and profit1

ogathers it for him who is pgenerous to the poor.

⁹If one turns away his ear from hearing the law,

even his qprayer is an abomination.

¹⁰Whoever misleads the upright into an evil way

rwill fall into his own pit,

but the blameless swill have a goodly inheritance.

¹¹A rich man is wise in his town eyes,

but a poor man who has understanding uwill find him out.

¹²When vthe righteous triumph, there is great glory,

but when wthe wicked rise, people hide themselves.

¹³Whoever xconceals his transgressions will not prosper,

but he who yconfesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

¹⁴Blessed is the one who zfears the Lord2 always,

but whoever ahardens his heart will fall into calamity.

¹⁵Like ba roaring lion or ca charging bear

is da wicked ruler over a poor people.

¹⁶A ruler who elacks understanding is a cruel oppressor,

but he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days.

¹⁷If one is burdened with fthe blood of another,

he will be a fugitive until death;3

let no one help him.

¹⁸gWhoever hwalks in integrity will be delivered,

but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall.

¹⁹iWhoever works his land will have plenty of bread,

but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.

²⁰A faithful man will abound with blessings,

but whoever hastens to be rich jwill not go unpunished.

²¹To show kpartiality is not good,

but for la piece of bread a man will do wrong.

²²A mstingy man4 nhastens after wealth

and does not know that opoverty will come upon him.

²³Whoever prebukes a man will afterward find more favor

than qhe who flatters with his tongue.

²⁴Whoever robs his father or his mother

and says, “That is no transgression,”

is ra companion to a man who destroys.

²⁵A greedy man sstirs up strife,

but the one who trusts in the Lord will tbe enriched.

²⁶Whoever utrusts in his own mind is a fool,

but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

²⁷Whoever vgives to the poor will not want,

but he who whides his eyes will get many a curse.

²⁸When xthe wicked rise, ypeople hide themselves,

but when they perish, the righteous increase.

The Man of Lawlessness

¹Now concerning athe coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our bbeing gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers,1 ²not to be quickly shaken in mind or calarmed, either dby a spirit or a espoken word, or ea letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that fthe day of the Lord has come. ³gLet no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, hunless the rebellion comes first, and ithe man of lawlessness2 is revealed, jthe son of destruction,3 ⁴who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, kproclaiming himself to be God. ⁵Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? ⁶And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. ⁷For lthe mystery of lawlessness mis already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. ⁸And then nthe lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus owill kill with pthe breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by qthe appearance of his coming. ⁹The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan rwith all power and false signs and wonders, ¹⁰and with all wicked deception for sthose who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹Therefore tGod sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe uwhat is false, ¹²in order that all may be condemned vwho did not believe the truth but whad pleasure in unrighteousness.

Stand Firm

¹³But xwe ought always to give thanks to God for you, ybrothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you zas the firstfruits4 ato be saved, bthrough sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. ¹⁴To this he called you through cour gospel, aso that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵So then, brothers, dstand firm and hold to ethe traditions that you were taught by us, either fby our spoken word or by four letter.

¹⁶Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, gwho loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hhope through grace, ¹⁷comfort your hearts and iestablish them in every good work and word.