Numbers 19:6–18

⁶The priest shall take cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson material and throw them into the fire in which the heifer is burning.^{* 7}Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, but the priest shall remain unclean until evening.^{* 8}The one who burns the heiferⁿ shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water; he shall remain unclean until evening. ⁹Then someone who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and they shall be kept for the congregation of the Israelites for the water for cleansing. It is a purification offering.^{* 10}The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.

“This shall be a perpetual statute for the Israelites and for the alien residing among them. ¹¹Those who touch the dead body of any human being shall be unclean seven days.^{* 12}They shall purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day and so be clean, but if they do not purify themselves on the third day and on the seventh day, they will not become clean.^{* 13}All who touch a corpse, the body of a human being who has died, and do not purify themselves defile the tabernacle of the Lord; such persons shall be cut off from Israel. Since water for cleansing was not dashed on them, they remain unclean; their uncleanness is still on them.^*

¹⁴“This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁵And every open vessel with no cover fastened on it is unclean. ¹⁶Whoever in the open field touches one who has been killed by a sword or who has died naturally,^o or a human bone, or a grave shall be unclean seven days.^{* 17}For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt purification offering, and running water shall be added in a vessel;^{* 18}then a clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the furnishings, on the persons who were there, and on whoever touched the bone, the slain, the corpse, or the grave.