Scapebird

The scapebird is the second of two clean birds in the priestly rite for cleansing a healed leper or a leprous house. One bird is slain, the other dipped in its blood and released alive into the open field. The released bird carries the same name-pattern as the goat sent into the wilderness on the Day of Atonement — a living creature let go after the rite is complete.

The Rite of the Two Birds

For the cleansing of a person, the priest assembles two living clean birds with cedar, scarlet, and hyssop: "then will the priest command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop" (Le 14:4). One bird is killed in a clay vessel held over running water: "And the priest will command to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over living water" (Le 14:5).

The second bird, with the cedar, scarlet, and hyssop, is dipped in the blood of the slain bird: "As for the living bird, he will take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and will dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water" (Le 14:6). The leper is then sprinkled seven times, declared clean, and the living bird is freed: "And he will sprinkle on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and will pronounce him clean, and will let the living bird go into the open field" (Le 14:7).

Cleansing of a House

The same two-bird ritual applies when a house has been afflicted and pronounced clean. The release of the living bird again completes the rite: "but he will let go the living bird out of the city into the open field: so he will make atonement for the house; and it will be clean" (Le 14:53).

In both cases the pattern is the same — one death, one release. The slain bird's blood does the cleansing, and the living bird, dipped in that blood, is sent away into the open field, carrying the rite's completion outward beyond the camp or the city.