I walk along forlorn paths
out near the City refuse heap
The Lepers and the destitute
Dwell here away from busy streets

No one recalls another time
When a priest has performed these rites
Not even the law recollects
A healed Israelite

From the stain of leprosy
I had to open up the book (1)
To find the rites long neglected
To restore a man so forsook

I must look a sight thus burdened
With a clay pot and cedar wood
Two doves, scarlet yarn, and hyssop
Out to see the healed leper

I examined him earlier
and sure enough, the man is clean
I have witnessed the miraculous
It is like nothing I have ever seen

He says the man Jesus touched him
Immediately the leprosy
Fled before the teacher’s touch
Adding mystery to rarity

Finally, I arrive at the place
A living spring pours from the rocks
The leper now clean stands nearby
Along with some who made the walk

I feel many eyes on my back
As I get ready to perform
Reconciling a leper
In thankfulness unto the Lord

I approach the jar of living water
With one young dove held in my hands
I draw my knife and kill it then
Into the water, the blood fans

I take up the second dove
Along with the scarlet thread
The cedar plank and the hyssop
I approach the dove that is dead

The living water is red now
Innocence has died, the water
I dip the living bird down in
Along with accompaniments

What could it all mean I wonder
As I obey the sacred law
And draw alive this bird from blood
Shed by its Savior without flaw

The live bird, yarn, cedar, hyssop
I now sprinkle on the new man
And release him to fly now free
This according to God’s great plan

The scarlet, blood, and royalty (2)
Cedar, the temple, and the cross (3)
Hyssop paintbrush (4) that lifts the drink (5)
To the man who paid my own cost

For my flesh was dead and rotting
But he took my curse upon him
In his waters, I have been cleansed
Of all that binds to fear and sin

Leviticus 14
Matthew 27:28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.
1 Kings 6:14 So Solomon built the house and finished it. 15 He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood.
Exodus 12:21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, “Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover. 22 You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin.
John 19:29 Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth. 30 When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.