The Father Speaks to Moses
After a birth a mother is unclean seven days for a son and fourteen for a daughter, then completes a longer purification before coming near anything holy. She brings a lamb and a bird, or two birds if she cannot afford a lamb.
12 1Our Father spoke to Moses, saying:
2"Tell the Israelites: when a woman conceives and bears a son, she is unclean seven days—unclean as during her monthly period. 3And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin will be circumcised. 4For thirty-three days she remains in the blood of her purification. She must not touch anything holy or enter the sanctuary until her days of purification are complete. 5If she bears a daughter, she is unclean two weeks, as during her period, then continues sixty-six days in the blood of her purification.
6"When her days of purification for a son or daughter are complete, she must bring the priest at the tent of meeting's entrance a year-old lamb as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or turtledove as a sin offering. 7He will offer it before our Father and atone for her; she'll be clean from her blood flow. This is the law for the woman who gives birth, to a son or daughter.
8"If she can't afford a lamb, she may take two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one for a burnt offering, one for a sin offering. The priest will atone for her, and she will be clean." a a v8 When the family could not afford a lamb, our Father made room for the poor with this lesser gift — and this is the very offering Mary brought when she presented Jesus in the temple.
