Leviticus 12 WEB
Summary: This short chapter sets out purification requirements for a woman after childbirth. Following the birth of a son, she is ceremonially unclean for seven days, plus the boy is circumcised on the eighth day, and she remains in a period of blood purification for thirty-three more days, avoiding holy things and the sanctuary. For a daughter, the periods double to two weeks of uncleanness and sixty-six days of purification. At the end of the time she brings a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or dove for a sin offering, with an allowance for two birds instead of a lamb if she cannot afford one — the offering Mary presents after Jesus' birth in Luke 2.
1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a woman conceives, and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her monthly period she shall be unclean.
3In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
4She shall continue in the blood of purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any holy thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed.
5But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her period; and she shall continue in the blood of purification sixty-six days.
6“ ‘When the days of her purification are completed for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the Tent of Meeting, a year old lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove, for a sin offering.
7He shall offer it before Yahweh, and make atonement for her; then she shall be cleansed from the fountain of her blood. “ ‘This is the law for her who bears, whether a male or a female.
8If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons: the one for a burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.’ ”
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