A bird of the air was to die,
Instead of the leper unclean;
And Jesus, whose home was on high,
Descended to suffer for sin.
The bird must be clean of its kind,
Or else ‘twere unfit’ to be slain;
And none could in Jesus e’er find
A blemish, a spot, or a stain.
The bird in a vessel of earth
Must yield up its blood and its breath
And Jesus, of heavenly birth,
In form as a roan suffered death.
The blood of the bird that was slain
The living one bore to the sky;
So Jesus, in rising again,
The worth of His blood took on high.
The leper, with blood seven times
Was sprinkled to render him clean;
So sinners are cleansed from their crimes,
In blood which atoned for their sin.