Chronological Plan

¹Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them,

²“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth:

³Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud—that you may eat.

⁴Nevertheless these you shall not eat among those that chew the cud or those that have cloven hooves: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you;

⁵the rock hyrax, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you;

⁶the hare, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you;

⁷and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.

⁸Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you.

⁹‘These you may eat of all that are in the water: whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers—that you may eat.

¹⁰But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you.

¹¹They shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination.

¹²Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales—that shall be an abomination to you.

¹³‘And these you shall regard as an abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard,

¹⁴the kite, and the falcon after its kind;

¹⁵every raven after its kind,

¹⁶the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after its kind;

¹⁷the little owl, the fisher owl, and the screech owl;

¹⁸the white owl, the jackdaw, and the carrion vulture;

¹⁹the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

²⁰‘All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you.

²¹Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth.

²²These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind.

²³But all other flying insects which have four feet shall be an abomination to you.

²⁴‘By these you shall become unclean; whoever touches the carcass of any of them shall be unclean until evening;

²⁵whoever carries part of the carcass of any of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening:

²⁶The carcass of any animal which divides the foot, but is not cloven-hoofed or does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches it shall be unclean.

²⁷And whatever goes on its paws, among all kinds of animals that go on all fours, those are unclean to you. Whoever touches any such carcass shall be unclean until evening.

²⁸Whoever carries any such carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. It is unclean to you.

²⁹‘These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and the large lizard after its kind;

³⁰the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

³¹These are unclean to you among all that creep. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening.

³²Anything on which any of them falls, when they are dead shall be unclean, whether it is any item of wood or clothing or skin or sack, whatever item it is, in which any work is done, it must be put in water. And it shall be unclean until evening; then it shall be clean.

³³Any earthen vessel into which any of them falls you shall break; and whatever is in it shall be unclean:

³⁴in such a vessel, any edible food upon which water falls becomes unclean, and any drink that may be drunk from it becomes unclean.

³⁵And everything on which a part of any such carcass falls shall be unclean; whether it is an oven or cooking stove, it shall be broken down; for they are unclean, and shall be unclean to you.

³⁶Nevertheless a spring or a cistern, in which there is plenty of water, shall be clean, but whatever touches any such carcass becomes unclean.

³⁷And if a part of any such carcass falls on any planting seed which is to be sown, it remains clean.

³⁸But if water is put on the seed, and if a part of any such carcass falls on it, it becomes unclean to you.

³⁹‘And if any animal which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening.

⁴⁰He who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. He also who carries its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.

⁴¹‘And every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination. It shall not be eaten.

⁴²Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth—these you shall not eat, for they are an abomination.

⁴³You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps; nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them, lest you be defiled by them.

⁴⁴For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

⁴⁵For I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

⁴⁶‘This is the law of the animals and the birds and every living creature that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps on the earth,

⁴⁷to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten.’ ”

¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean.

³And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

⁴She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.

⁵‘But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.

⁶‘When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

⁷Then he shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement for her. And she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female.

⁸‘And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’ ”

¹And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

²“When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes on the skin of his body like a leprous sore, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests.

³The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of the body; and if the hair on the sore has turned white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous sore. Then the priest shall examine him, and pronounce him unclean.

⁴But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and its hair has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the sore seven days.

⁵And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day; and indeed if the sore appears to be as it was, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him another seven days.

⁶Then the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day; and indeed if the sore has faded, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean.

⁷But if the scab should at all spread over the skin, after he has been seen by the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen by the priest again.

⁸And if the priest sees that the scab has indeed spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy.

⁹“When the leprous sore is on a person, then he shall be brought to the priest.

¹⁰And the priest shall examine him; and indeed if the swelling on the skin is white, and it has turned the hair white, and there is a spot of raw flesh in the swelling,

¹¹it is an old leprosy on the skin of his body. The priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not isolate him, for he is unclean.

¹²“And if leprosy breaks out all over the skin, and the leprosy covers all the skin of the one who has the sore, from his head to his foot, wherever the priest looks,

¹³then the priest shall consider; and indeed if the leprosy has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean who has the sore. It has all turned white. He is clean.

¹⁴But when raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean.

¹⁵And the priest shall examine the raw flesh and pronounce him to be unclean; for the raw flesh is unclean. It is leprosy.

¹⁶Or if the raw flesh changes and turns white again, he shall come to the priest.

¹⁷And the priest shall examine him; and indeed if the sore has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him clean who has the sore. He is clean.

¹⁸“If the body develops a boil in the skin, and it is healed,

¹⁹and in the place of the boil there comes a white swelling or a bright spot, reddish-white, then it shall be shown to the priest;

²⁰and if, when the priest sees it, it indeed appears deeper than the skin, and its hair has turned white, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprous sore which has broken out of the boil.

²¹But if the priest examines it, and indeed there are no white hairs in it, and it is not deeper than the skin, but has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days;

²²and if it should at all spread over the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprous sore.

²³But if the bright spot stays in one place, and has not spread, it is the scar of the boil; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

²⁴“Or if the body receives a burn on its skin by fire, and the raw flesh of the burn becomes a bright spot, reddish-white or white,

²⁵then the priest shall examine it; and indeed if the hair of the bright spot has turned white, and it appears deeper than the skin, it is leprosy broken out in the burn. Therefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprous sore.

²⁶But if the priest examines it, and indeed there are no white hairs in the bright spot, and it is not deeper than the skin, but has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days.

²⁷And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day. If it has at all spread over the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprous sore.

²⁸But if the bright spot stays in one place, and has not spread on the skin, but has faded, it is a swelling from the burn. The priest shall pronounce him clean, for it is the scar from the burn.

²⁹“If a man or woman has a sore on the head or the beard,

³⁰then the priest shall examine the sore; and indeed if it appears deeper than the skin, and there is in it thin yellow hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a scaly leprosy of the head or beard.

³¹But if the priest examines the scaly sore, and indeed it does not appear deeper than the skin, and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the scale seven days.

³²And on the seventh day the priest shall examine the sore; and indeed if the scale has not spread, and there is no yellow hair in it, and the scale does not appear deeper than the skin,

³³he shall shave himself, but the scale he shall not shave. And the priest shall isolate the one who has the scale another seven days.

³⁴On the seventh day the priest shall examine the scale; and indeed if the scale has not spread over the skin, and does not appear deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. He shall wash his clothes and be clean.

³⁵But if the scale should at all spread over the skin after his cleansing,

³⁶then the priest shall examine him; and indeed if the scale has spread over the skin, the priest need not seek for yellow hair. He is unclean.

³⁷But if the scale appears to be at a standstill, and there is black hair grown up in it, the scale has healed. He is clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

³⁸“If a man or a woman has bright spots on the skin of the body, specifically white bright spots,

³⁹then the priest shall look; and indeed if the bright spots on the skin of the body are dull white, it is a white spot that grows on the skin. He is clean.

⁴⁰“As for the man whose hair has fallen from his head, he is bald, but he is clean.

⁴¹He whose hair has fallen from his forehead, he is bald on the forehead, but he is clean.

⁴²And if there is on the bald head or bald forehead a reddish-white sore, it is leprosy breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead.

⁴³Then the priest shall examine it; and indeed if the swelling of the sore is reddish-white on his bald head or on his bald forehead, as the appearance of leprosy on the skin of the body,

⁴⁴he is a leprous man. He is unclean. The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean; his sore is on his head.

⁴⁵“Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’

⁴⁶He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

⁴⁷“Also, if a garment has a leprous plague in it, whether it is a woolen garment or a linen garment,

⁴⁸whether it is in the warp or woof of linen or wool, whether in leather or in anything made of leather,

⁴⁹and if the plague is greenish or reddish in the garment or in the leather, whether in the warp or in the woof, or in anything made of leather, it is a leprous plague and shall be shown to the priest.

⁵⁰The priest shall examine the plague and isolate that which has the plague seven days.

⁵¹And he shall examine the plague on the seventh day. If the plague has spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, in the leather or in anything made of leather, the plague is an active leprosy. It is unclean.

⁵²He shall therefore burn that garment in which is the plague, whether warp or woof, in wool or in linen, or anything of leather, for it is an active leprosy; the garment shall be burned in the fire.

⁵³“But if the priest examines it, and indeed the plague has not spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in anything made of leather,

⁵⁴then the priest shall command that they wash the thing in which is the plague; and he shall isolate it another seven days.

⁵⁵Then the priest shall examine the plague after it has been washed; and indeed if the plague has not changed its color, though the plague has not spread, it is unclean, and you shall burn it in the fire; it continues eating away, whether the damage is outside or inside.

⁵⁶If the priest examines it, and indeed the plague has faded after washing it, then he shall tear it out of the garment, whether out of the warp or out of the woof, or out of the leather.

⁵⁷But if it appears again in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in anything made of leather, it is a spreading plague; you shall burn with fire that in which is the plague.

⁵⁸And if you wash the garment, either warp or woof, or whatever is made of leather, if the plague has disappeared from it, then it shall be washed a second time, and shall be clean.

⁵⁹“This is the law of the leprous plague in a garment of wool or linen, either in the warp or woof, or in anything made of leather, to pronounce it clean or to pronounce it unclean.”