Then ¹  he is to take the live bird along with the piece of cedar wood, the scrap of crimson fabric, and the twigs of hyssop, and he is to dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird slaughtered over the fresh water,

צ (Tsade) For no good reason ¹  my enemies hunted me down ²  like a bird.

All ritually clean birds you may eat.

a hidden path ¹  no bird of prey knows – no falcon’s ²  eye has spotted it.

Surely it is futile to spread ¹  a net in plain sight of ²  any bird, ³ 

Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare, ¹  and like a bird from the trap ²  of the fowler.

So he is to decontaminate the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the live bird, the piece of cedar wood, the twigs of hyssop, and the scrap of crimson fabric,

Can you play ¹  with it, like a bird, or tie it on a leash ²  for your girls?

Like a bird that wanders ¹  from its nest, so is a person who wanders from his home. ² 

any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky,

We escaped with our lives, ¹  like a bird from a hunter’s snare. The snare broke, and we escaped.

and he is to send the live bird away outside the city ¹  into the open countryside. So he is to make atonement for the house and it will be clean.

till an arrow pierces his liver ¹  – like a bird hurrying into a trap, and he does not know that it will cost him his life. ² 

I stay awake; ¹  I am like a solitary bird on a roof.

The priests will not eat any bird or animal that has died a natural death or was torn to pieces by a wild animal. ¹ 

Ephraim will be like a bird; what they value ¹  will fly away. They will not bear children – they will not enjoy pregnancy – they will not even conceive! ² 

He must then take the piece of cedar wood, the twigs of hyssop, the scrap of crimson fabric, and the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and in the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times.

And you must not eat any blood of the birds or the domesticated land animals in any of the places where you live. ¹ 

For the music director; by David. In the Lord I have taken shelter. ²  How can you say to me, ³  “Flee to a mountain like a bird! ⁴ 

and sprinkle it seven times on the one being cleansed ¹  from the disease, pronounce him clean, ²  and send the live bird away over the open countryside. ³