Numbers 19

The Water of Cleansing

19The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ²“This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer^s without defect or blemish^t and that has never been under a yoke.^{u 3}Give it to Eleazar^v the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp^w and slaughtered in his presence. ⁴Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle^x it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. ⁵While he watches, the heifer is to be burned—its hide, flesh, blood and intestines.^{y 6}The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop^z and scarlet wool^a and throw them onto the burning heifer. ⁷After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water.^b He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. ⁸The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening.

⁹“A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer^c and put them in a ceremonially clean place^d outside the camp. They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing;^e it is for purification from sin.^{f 10}The man who gathers up^g the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening.^h This will be a lasting ordinanceⁱ both for the Israelites and for the foreigners residing among them.^j

¹¹“Whoever touches a human corpse^k will be unclean for seven days.^{l 12}They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day;^m then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean.^{n 13}If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse,^o they defile the Lord’s tabernacle.^p They must be cut off from Israel.^q Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean;^r their uncleanness remains on them.

¹⁴“This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, ¹⁵and every open container^s without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.

¹⁶“Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death,^t or anyone who touches a human bone^u or a grave,^v will be unclean for seven days.^w

¹⁷“For the unclean person, put some ashes^x from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water^y over them. ¹⁸Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop,^z dip it in the water and sprinkle^a the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave^b or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death. ¹⁹The man who is clean is to sprinkle^c those who are unclean on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify them.^d Those who are being cleansed must wash their clothes^e and bathe with water, and that evening they will be clean. ²⁰But if those who are unclean do not purify themselves, they must be cut off from the community, because they have defiled^f the sanctuary of the Lord.^g The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, and they are unclean.^{h 21}This is a lasting ordinanceⁱ for them.

“The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening. ²²Anything that an unclean^j person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening.”