Numbers 19

Laws of Purification

19Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²“This is the ¹ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without ²blemish, in which there is no ^adefect ^band on which a yoke has never come. ³You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, that he may take it ^coutside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before him; ⁴and Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and ^dsprinkle some of its blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁵Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight: ^eits hide, its flesh, its blood, and its offal shall be burned. ⁶And the priest shall take ^fcedar wood and ^ghyssop and scarlet, and cast them into the midst of the fire burning the heifer. ^7hThen the priest shall wash his clothes, he shall bathe in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp; the priest shall be unclean until evening. ⁸And the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, bathe in water, and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹Then a man who is clean shall gather up ⁱthe ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel ^jfor the water of ³purification; it is for purifying from sin. ¹⁰And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening. It shall be a statute forever to the children of Israel and to the stranger who dwells among them.

^11k‘He who touches the dead ⁴body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. ^12lHe shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; 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. ¹³Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and ^mdoes not purify himself, ⁿdefiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because ^othe water of purification was not sprinkled on him; ^phis uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: All who come into the tent and all who are in the tent shall be unclean seven days; ¹⁵and every ^qopen vessel, which has no cover fastened on it, is unclean. ^16rWhoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁷‘And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ^sashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin, and ⁵running water shall be put on them in a vessel. ¹⁸A clean person shall take ^thyssop and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, the slain, the dead, or a grave. ¹⁹The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; ^uand on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean.

²⁰‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has ^vdefiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. ²¹It shall be a perpetual statute for them. He who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes; and he who touches the water of purification shall be unclean until evening. ^22wWhatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and ^xthe person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”