Numbers 19

Ordinance of the Red Heifer

1Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2“This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an 1unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and 2on which a yoke has never 3been placed. 3You shall give it to 4Eleazar the priest, and it shall 5be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. 4Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and 6sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; 7its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. 6The priest shall take 8cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the 9burning heifer. 7The priest 10shall then wash his clothes and bathe his 11body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his 12body in water, and shall be unclean until evening. 9Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and 13the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as 14water to remove impurity; it is 15purification from sin. 10The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer 16shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the alien who sojourns among them.

11‘17The one who touches the corpse of any 18person shall be unclean for seven days. 12That one shall 19purify himself from uncleanness with 20the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. 1321Anyone who touches a corpse, the 22body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, 23defiles the 24tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not 2526sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

14‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. 15Every open vessel, which has no covering 27tied down on it, shall be unclean. 1628Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days. 17Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the 29ashes of the 30burnt 3132purification from sin and 33flowing water shall be 34added to them in a vessel. 18A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave. 19Then the clean person 35shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.

20‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has 36defiled the sanctuary of the Lord; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean. 21So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he 37who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. 2238Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’”