Leviticus 14:33-53

Ceremonies for a Leprous House. Doubtless the result of the working of analogy; a secondary section, like Leviticus 13:47 ff. When Yahweh puts the plague of leprosy upon a house (cf. Amos 3:6), the house is to be emptied, for ritual purposes, and if suspicion is aroused by the priest's inspection, the house is sealed up for a week. If on a further inspection the infection is still there, the mortar is to be scraped off, and the stones of the infected place removed. The house is then repaired, but if the plague appear again, the house is torn down and its materials carted away. Palestinian houses, as is shown by the debris on excavated sites, were built of stones loosely put together with mortar (not always properly tempered; cf. Ezekiel 13:10). It was not, therefore, difficult to dig through and remove (cf. Ezekiel 12:5; Matthew 6:19) part of the wall; though when a house was destroyed, the debris was generally left on the spot, to serve for a fresh building. Entering the house involves uncleanness, and when the house is pronounced clean, the older rite is prescribed for the ratification of its habitability (birds, cedar, running water, etc.), and by it is made the atonement which for a human being is made by the three kinds of offerings.