Leviticus 14:8

The Seven Days of Purification

14:8 “The one being cleansed ¹  must then wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe in water, and so be clean. ²  Then afterward he may enter the camp, but he must live outside his tent seven days.

Exodus 29:30

29:30 The priest who succeeds him ³  from his sons, when he first comes ⁴  to the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place, is to wear them for seven days. ⁵ 

Exodus 29:35

29:35 “Thus you are to do for Aaron and for his sons, according to all that I have commanded you; you are to consecrate them ⁶  for ⁷  seven days.

Numbers 19:12

19:12 He must purify himself ⁸  with water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and the seventh day, then he will not be clean.

Ezekiel 43:25-27

43:25 “For seven days you will provide every day a goat for a sin offering; a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without blemish, will be provided. 43:26 For seven days they will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, so they will consecrate it. ⁹  43:27 When the prescribed period is over, ¹⁰  on the eighth day and thereafter the priests will offer up on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings; ¹¹  I will accept you, declares the sovereign Lord.”

[14:8]  ¹ tn Heb “the one cleansing himself” (i.e., Hitpael participle of טָהֵר [taher, “to be clean”]).

[14:8]  ² tn Heb “and he shall be clean” (so ASV). The end result of the ritual procedures in vv. 4-7 and the washing and shaving in v. 8a is that the formerly diseased person has now officially become clean in the sense that he can reenter the community (see v. 8b; contrast living outside the community as an unclean diseased person, Lev 13:46). There are, however, further cleansing rituals and pronouncements for him to undergo in the tabernacle as outlined in vv. 10-20 (see Qal “be[come] clean” in vv. 9 and 20, Piel “pronounce clean” in v. 11, and Hitpael “the one being cleansed” in vv. 11, 14, 17, 18, and 19). Obviously, in order to enter the tabernacle he must already “be clean” in the sense of having access to the community.

[29:30]  ³ tn Heb “after him”; NCV, NLT “after Aaron.”

[29:30]  ⁴ tn The text just has the relative pronoun and the imperfect tense. It could be translated “who comes/enters.” But the context seems to indicate that this would be when he first comes to the tent to begin his tenure as High Priest, and so a temporal clause makes this clear. “First” has been supplied.

[29:30]  ⁵ tn “Seven days” is an adverbial accusative of time. The ritual of ordination is to be repeated for seven days, and so they are to remain there in the court in full dress.

[29:35]  ⁶ tn Heb “you will fill their hand.”

[29:35]  ⁷ tn The “seven days” is the adverbial accusative explaining that the ritual of the filling should continue daily for a week. Leviticus makes it clear that they are not to leave the sanctuary.

[19:12]  ⁸ tn The verb is the Hitpael of חָטָא (khata’), a verb that normally means “to sin.” But the Piel idea in many places is “to cleanse; to purify.” This may be explained as a privative use (“to un-sin” someone, meaning cleanse) or denominative (“make a sin offering for someone”). It is surely connected to the purification offering, and so a sense of purify is what is wanted here.

[43:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “fill its hands.”

[43:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they will complete the days.”

[43:27]  ¹¹ sn The people also could partake of the food of the peace offering (Lev 3).