Leviticus 14:53
And when he hath let go the sparrow to fly freely away into the field, he shall pray for the house, and it shall be rightly cleansed.
Open Leviticus 14:53 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cumque dimiserit passerem avolare in agrum libere, orabit pro domo, et jure mundabitur.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐξαποστελεῖ τὸ ὀρνίθιον τὸ ζῶν ἔξω πόλεως εἰς τὸ πεδίον, καὶ ἐξιλάσεται περὶ τῆς οἰκίας, καὶ καθαρὰ ἔσται.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְשִׁלַּ֞ח אֶת הַצִּפֹּ֧ר הַֽחַיָּ֛ה אֶל מִח֥וּץ לָעִ֖יר אֶל פְּנֵ֣י הַשָּׂדֶ֑ה וְכִפֶּ֥ר עַל הַבַּ֖יִת וְטָהֵֽר
Haydock's commentary
For the house, that it may be no more infected; and for the people, to whom it belongs; that they may carefully avoid offending God, the avenger of all sin. Hebrew, "you shall make an atonement for the house," or for the sins of its inhabitants. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Justin Martyr Other Fragments from the Lost Writings, X
By the two birds Christ is denoted, both dead as man, and living as God. He is likened to a bird, because He is understood and declared to be from above, and from heaven. And the living bird, having been dipped in the blood of the dead one, was afterwards let go. For the living and divine Word was in the crucified and dead temple [of the body], as being a partaker of the passion, and yet impassible to God.