Chapter 19

Ordinance of the Red Heifer

1 Then 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 aunblemished red heifer in which is no defect and bon which a yoke has never 1been placed.

3 ‘You shall give it to aEleazar the priest, and it shall bbe brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.

4 ‘Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and asprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

5 ‘Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; aits hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned.

6 ‘The priest shall take acedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the 1burning heifer.

7 ‘The priest ashall then wash his clothes and bathe his 1body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.

8 ‘The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his 1body in water, and shall be unclean until evening.

9 ‘Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and 1the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as awater to remove impurity; it is 2purification from sin.

10 ‘The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ashall 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 ‘aThe one who touches the corpse of any 1person shall be unclean for seven days.

12 ‘That one shall apurify himself from uncleanness with 1the 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.

13 ‘aAnyone who touches a corpse, the 1body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, bdefiles the 2tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not 3csprinkled 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.

15 ‘Every open vessel, which has no covering 1tied down on it, shall be unclean.

16 ‘aAlso, 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.

17 ‘Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the 1ashes of the 2burnt 3apurification from sin and 4flowing water shall be 5added to them in a vessel.

18 ‘A 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.

19 ‘Then the clean person ashall 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 adefiled the sanctuary of the Lord; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean.

21 ‘So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he awho sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.

22 ‘aFurthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”