“And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.”
The priest is to sprinkle the blood seven times on the person being cleansed of the defiling disease, and then pronounce them clean. After that, he is to release the live bird in the open fields. The sevenfold blood-sprinkling on the former leper — the same thoroughness as the sevenfold sprinkling before the veil in the sin offering — accomplishes the cleansing. The priest pronounces them clean. And then the live bird is released into the open fields — the bird marked with the blood flies free, carrying away the defilement into the open country. The two-bird ceremony is a visual drama: one bird died that the person might be pronounced clean; one bird carries the defilement away into freedom. Leviticus 16's Day of Atonement will use the same two-part structure with a two-goat ceremony.
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