Numbers 19

1Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron,

2“This is the statute of the law that Yahweh has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect, one that has no blemish and has never been under a yoke.

3Give it to Eleazar the priest. It is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

4Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting.

5While he watches, the heifer is to be burned. Its hide, its flesh, and its blood, along with its dung, are to be burned.

6The priest is to take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn and throw them into the fire where the heifer is burning.

7Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. After that he may come into the camp, but the priest will be unclean until evening.

8The man who burns the heifer must also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and he will be unclean until evening.

9Then a man who is clean is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a clean place outside the camp. They are to be kept for the congregation of the Israelites for use in the water for removing impurity; it is a sin offering.

10The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner who lives among them.

11Whoever touches the dead body of any human being will be unclean for seven days.

12That person must purify himself with the 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.

13Anyone who touches the body of someone who has died and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of Yahweh. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water for removing impurity has not been splashed on him, he is unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

14This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who enters the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days,

15and every open container that has no lid fastened on it will be unclean.

16Anyone out in the open who touches someone killed by the sword, or someone who has died, or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

17For the unclean person, they are to take some of the ashes from the burned sin offering and pour fresh water over them in a container.

18Then a man who is clean is to take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent, all the furnishings, and the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle anyone who touched a bone, or someone killed, or someone who died, or a grave.

19The clean man is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day he is to purify that person, who must then wash his clothes and bathe in water, and in the evening he will be clean.

20But anyone who becomes unclean and does not purify himself must be cut off from among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh. The water for removing impurity has not been splashed on him; he is unclean.

21This is to be a permanent statute for them. The one who sprinkles the water for removing impurity must wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water for removing impurity will be unclean until evening.

22Anything the unclean person touches will become unclean, and anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.”