Chapter 14 continues the discussion on dealing with “skin diseases”, although as noted in the previous chapter, our concept of this shouldn’t be restricted by what we know modern-day as leprosy as this chapter will eventually get to how to deal with houses that have these same afflictions. Whatever we’re dealing with, it can express itself in people and can be present in a house in such a way that makes the dwelling itself unclean.
Since we know from chapter 13 that an unclean person ends up outside of the community, the question is how those same folks can be brought back in once the disease is no longer present. One of the key things to note here is that, as the priests get involved, they are not curing diseases. Their job is to to be arbiter of recognizing clean or unclean and make sure that, when that transition occurs, the proper things are done.
If a person who was unclean and outside the camp find that they no longer have the disease, the priest is called to confirm that this is indeed the case. If it is, a series of things occurs. First, the birds. One bird is killed and its blood is mixed with fresh water in an pot. The second bird as well as the cleansed persons is sprinkled with this mix. What’s going on here? We’ll see similar things in chapter 16 with the rituals around the Day of Atonement, but broadly we’re seeing this person being identified with these two birds. The first one is dies (like the diseased person would have) and the second one is allowed to go free to live again, a resurrection. There’s also a sense of purification (with the blood of the sacrificed first bird), just like there is from the Atonement ceremony and the previous purification offering. Regardless, we’re seeing in the birds the mirrored reality of the person who is transitioning back into a “whole” member of society, rescued from the living death they were living in prior to the disease being cured.
After the bird stuff is done, the person has to shave their entire body and wash themselves, a proper cleansing before re-joining the holy people of God, a member of the community where Yahweh dwells. However, they’re not there yet. Although allowed to live in the camp, they can’t stay in their own tent yet. On the 8th day of their return (think of the similar timeframe for circumcision of a baby), the shaving and washing happens again and the person is now clean.
One more thing remains, though, and that getting back to doing what members of this community do, the sacrifices. What follows, then, is 4 sacrifices that we have already been introduced to earlier in the book: the burnt offering, the cereal offering, the purification offering, and the reparation offering. The first 3 make sense, you have the purification offering to cleanse the sanctuary, the burnt offering that which brings reconciliation with God and a re-commitment to a life in His service, and the cereal offering, which is essentially a pledge of allegiance. The only thing that perhaps seems out of place is the reparation offering. If you recall, the reparation offering was made when there was a trespass against a sacred item. This could be here, then, under the thought that the sickness may have come about due to an unintended misuse or contact with a holy item in an impure state. It can’t be that the presence of these diseases is exclusively linked to the presence of sin (as we’ll see later in this chapter, houses can get it and houses don’t sin). Alternatively, the reparation offering is one that compensates God for loss, so it could also be that this offering is made for all of the missed offerings while the person was outside of the camp.
The rest of the chapter looks ahead to when the Israelites will be given the land of Canaan and occupy constructed houses (instead of tents). When disease is found in a house, the priest will confirm it and then, like with garments and people, put a quarantine on the joint to see if after a week it has spread. If it hasn’t, all is well and the house is clean, but the sacrifices with the birds have to be done just like they were for the person. (Obviously, the offerings aren’t done since since buildings just have to be clean, not in communion with God). If it has spread, however, the stones that have the persistent disease are to be removed and discarded outside of the camp. They are then replaced with new stones and re-plastered. If disease shows up again in the house, once the priest confirms it it is declared unclean and the house is to be torn down and all materials distributed outside the camp.