Rules about a house that has mould on its walls
33 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 34 ‘One day you will go into Canaan, the land that I am giving to you as your home. When you are living there, I may cause mould to come in one of your houses. 35 If a person finds mould in his house, he must tell the priest. He must say, “I can see something like a bad mould in my house.”
14:34Canaan is the land that God promised to give to Abraham and to his descendants. See Genesis 12:7. 14:34Mould grows on things when they are wet and warm. It is like a soft powder and it spoils things. It can pass to other things and it will spoil them too.
36 The priest will tell the person to take everything out of the house. If the person does not do that, all the things in the house will become unclean. He must do it before the priest goes to look at the house. 37 The priest will look carefully at the walls of the house. He will see if the mould has green or red marks in it. He will see if the mould goes deep into the wall. 38 If the priest sees those things, he will go outside the house. He will lock it to stay shut for seven days.
39 On the seventh day, the priest will return to the house. He will look carefully at the mould again. It may have grown bigger across the walls of the house. 40 If that has happened, the priest must say, “You must remove the stones that have mould on them. You must take them outside the town. You must put them in a special place for unclean things.” 41 The person must then remove the clay that covers all the inside walls of the house. He must put the clay outside the town in a place for unclean things. 42 The person who lives in the house must get some other stones and some more clay. He will use those instead of the unclean stones and clay that he removed.
43 After he has done all those things, the person might see that the mould has come back again. 44 The priest will come to the house and look carefully at the mould. If the mould has grown again across the walls, this shows that it is a dangerous mould. The house is unclean. 45 The person must completely knock down his house. He must remove all the stones, the pieces of wood and the clay. He must put them all outside the town in a place for unclean things.
46 A person might go into the house during the time that the priest has shut it because of the mould. That person will become unclean until evening. 47 Anyone who sleeps in the house must wash their clothes. And anyone who eats in the house must also wash their clothes.
48 After the person has mended his house, the priest may see that the mould has not grown again. The priest will then say that the house is clean. 49 He must take two birds, a piece of wood from a cedar tree, some red wool and a branch of hyssop. He will use these to make the house clean. 50 He will kill one of the birds over a clay pot that has fresh water in it. The blood of the dead bird will mix with the water. 51 The priest will then take the piece of cedar wood, the hyssop, the red wool and the other bird that is still alive. He will make them wet with the blood of the dead bird and the fresh water. He will shake the blood and water over the house seven times.
52 In this way, the priest will make the house clean. He will use the blood of the dead bird, the fresh water, the living bird, the piece of cedar wood, the hyssop and the red wool. 53 Then the priest will take the living bird outside the town. He will let the bird fly away over the fields. In this way he will make the house clean from the mould.’
