Leviticus 14:1-9, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Leviticus 14:1-9
Restoration begins outside the camp after the condition has passed
The priest goes outside the camp after the condition has healed
On the day of cleansing, the person is brought to the priest, and the priest goes forth out of the camp. He looks; if the plague of leprosy is healed, the rite may begin. Healing is verified first. The ritual does not create the healing, and isolation is not credited as the medicine that cured it.
Two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop are brought. One bird is killed in an earthen vessel over running water. The living bird, cedar, scarlet, and hyssop are dipped in the slain bird's blood and in the running water. The priest sprinkles the person seven times, pronounces the person clean, and lets the living bird loose into the open field.
Washing, shaving, and a week outside the tent come next
The person to be cleansed washes clothes, shaves off all hair, washes in water, and is clean, then comes into the camp but stays outside his tent seven days. On the seventh day he shaves head, beard, eyebrows—all hair—washes clothes and flesh, and is clean.
Return is staged: field-bird rite outside, then camp but not tent, then a second shave and wash. The sequence celebrates restored access. It is not a medical protocol and not evidence that the earlier isolation healed the body.
How this should shape us
Celebrate a return without rewriting the illness as a moral lesson or the ritual as a cure. Go to the person who has been outside; do not make them invent a treatment story in order to be allowed home.
Teach it back
Explain Leviticus 14:1-9 in your own words. Include its ritual, legal, narrative, or calendar movement; one source-supported detail; one uncertainty; and one use the context rules out.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters disagree over the system's symbolic logic, compositional layers, health effects, ancient practice, species and condition identifications, sanctuary-contamination models, and the relation of removable ritual status to wrongdoing. No one model explains every rule without remainder.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Leviticus 14:1-9, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 14:1-9
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 14:1-9
Supports: Open critical orientation to sacrifice, priestly portions, sacred space, holiness, purity, and sanctuary protection in Leviticus 1-15.
Yale Bible Study, 'Leviticus Part 1,' complete guide sections 'What is Sacred About Sacrifice?', 'Thanksgiving, Pleas, and Devotion,' and 'Purity & Impurity,' applied to Leviticus 14:1-9
Supports: A modern critical comparison of purity models and their compositional implications, used only within the accessible publisher evidence.
Baden, Two Models of Biblical Purity, Oxford University Press 2026, publisher chapter previews and contents for the sanctuary-contamination and ritual-status models
Supports: Jewish-textual analysis of priestly declaration and later rabbinic development without identifying tzaraat as one modern disease.
Himmelfarb, 'Priests and Rabbis Determine Ritual Reality,' complete sections on Leviticus 13-14, priestly declaration, skin and house signs, Mishnah Nega'im, and legal status
Supports: Comparative ancient Near Eastern evidence for affliction categories and ritual logic, with explicit limits on diagnosis and historical reconstruction.
Feder, 'Tzaraat in Light of Its Mesopotamian Parallels,' complete 2017 article with 2026 update, especially biblical symptoms, Akkadian parallels, ritual response, and methodological cautions
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of scholarly disagreement about Hebrews and supersessionism, used as a restraint on Christian canonical claims rather than as a complete solution.
Church, 'Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism,' Oxford 2024 official abstract and metadata, pp. 167-180
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Leviticus 14:1-9, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 14:1-9
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Leviticus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2025-12-31
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 14:1-9
Open source ↗modern critical open study guide
Leviticus Part 1: Sacrifice, Purity, and Holiness
Joel S. Baden and Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition
Supports: Open critical orientation to sacrifice, priestly portions, sacred space, holiness, purity, and sanctuary protection in Leviticus 1-15.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'Leviticus Part 1,' complete guide sections 'What is Sacred About Sacrifice?', 'Thanksgiving, Pleas, and Devotion,' and 'Purity & Impurity,' applied to Leviticus 14:1-9
Open source ↗modern scholarly monograph open chapter previews
Two Models of Biblical Purity: The Science of Ritual
Joel S. Baden
Oxford University Press, 2026
Supports: A modern critical comparison of purity models and their compositional implications, used only within the accessible publisher evidence.
Exact location: Baden, Two Models of Biblical Purity, Oxford University Press 2026, publisher chapter previews and contents for the sanctuary-contamination and ritual-status models
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open study
Priests and Rabbis Determine Ritual Reality
Martha Himmelfarb
TheTorah.com, 2021
Supports: Jewish-textual analysis of priestly declaration and later rabbinic development without identifying tzaraat as one modern disease.
Exact location: Himmelfarb, 'Priests and Rabbis Determine Ritual Reality,' complete sections on Leviticus 13-14, priestly declaration, skin and house signs, Mishnah Nega'im, and legal status
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open ancient near eastern study
Tzaraat in Light of Its Mesopotamian Parallels
Yitzhaq Feder
TheTorah.com, 2017; updated 2026
Supports: Comparative ancient Near Eastern evidence for affliction categories and ritual logic, with explicit limits on diagnosis and historical reconstruction.
Exact location: Feder, 'Tzaraat in Light of Its Mesopotamian Parallels,' complete 2017 article with 2026 update, especially biblical symptoms, Akkadian parallels, ritual response, and methodological cautions
Open source ↗modern christian scholarly handbook chapter abstract
Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism
Philip Church
The Oxford Handbook of Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles, Oxford University Press, 2024
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of scholarly disagreement about Hebrews and supersessionism, used as a restraint on Christian canonical claims rather than as a complete solution.
Exact location: Church, 'Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism,' Oxford 2024 official abstract and metadata, pp. 167-180
Open source ↗