וכפר על הבית וטהר הנה הכפרה הזאת בצפור המשתלחת שתשא הצפור את כל עונותיו אל מחוץ לעיר אל פני השדה כענין הכפרה בשעיר המשתלח ובעבור שאין עונש הנגע הנראה בביתו של אדם כעונש הנגע שבגופו לא הצריכו הכתוב לאשם וחטאת כי די לו בכפרה הראשונה שיביא המצורע לטהרתו שהם הצפרים ועץ הארז והאזוב: AND HE SHALL LET GO THE LIVING BIRD OUT OF THE CITY INTO THE OPEN FIELD, AND MAKE ATONEMENT FOR THE HOUSE, AND IT SHALL BE CLEAN. Now this atonement was effected by the bird which is to be sent away, the bird carrying away all his sins out of the city into the open field, like the atonement effected by the goat that is to be sent away.114Further, 16:21-22. Now since the punishment of the plague which appears in a person’s house is unlike [i.e., less in severity than] that of a plague which afflicts his body, Scripture did not make it necessary for him [the owner of the house] to bring a guilt-offering and sin-offering [as it required for the purification of a leper], because the first [stage of] atonement that the leper brings for his purification — namely, the birds, the cedar-wood and the hyssop115Above, Verse 4. And here too, in the purification of a house from leprosy, these are the requirements as stated in Verse 52. — is sufficient for him [i.e., the owner of the house].