Numbers 19

The Red Heifer

1The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2“This is the statute of the instruction that the LORD has commanded: Speak to the Israelites and have them bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and upon which no yoke has ever come. 3You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. 4Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. 5Then the heifer shall be burned before his eyes—its hide, flesh, blood, and dung shall be burned.

6The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material and throw them into the burning of the heifer. 7Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; afterward he may enter the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8The one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. 9A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and place them outside the camp in a clean place. They shall be kept for the congregation of the Israelites for water of purification; it is for purification from sin. 10The 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 resident alien who lives among them.

Purification from Contact with Death

11Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. 12That person shall purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day and shall be clean. But if the person does not purify themselves on the third day and on the seventh day, the person shall not be clean. 13Whoever touches a dead body, the body of a person who has died, and does not purify themselves defiles the tabernacle of the LORD. That person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water of purification was not sprinkled on them, they remain unclean; their uncleanness is still upon them.

14This is the instruction when a person dies in a tent: everyone who enters the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. 15Every open vessel that has no covering fastened over it shall be unclean. 16Whoever in the open field touches someone killed by the sword, a dead body, a human bone, or a grave shall be unclean seven days.

The Water of Purification

17For the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes from the burning of the purification offering and put fresh water with them in a vessel. 18A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, all the vessels, the people who were there, and the one who touched the bone, the slain person, the dead body, or the grave. 19The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day the unclean person shall purify themselves, wash their clothes, and bathe in water, and at evening shall be clean.

20But anyone who is unclean and does not purify themselves—that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because that person has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on them; they are unclean. 21It shall be a perpetual statute for them. The one who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash their clothes, and whoever touches the water of purification shall be unclean until evening. 22Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.