Ordinance of the Red Heifer
1Then 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 unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never
3And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.
4And Eleazar 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 in his sight; its hide, its flesh, and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned.
6And the priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material, and throw it into the midst of the
7The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his
8The one who burns
9Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them outside the camp in a clean place, and
10And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening; and it shall be a permanent statute for the sons of Israel and for the stranger who resides among them.
11‘The one who touches the dead body of any
12That one shall purify himself with
13Anyone who touches a dead body, the
14‘This is the law when a person dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days.
15And every open container, which has no cover tied down on it, will be unclean.
16Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been killed with a sword or one who has died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
17Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the
18And a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the furnishings, on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one who was killed or the one who died naturally, or the grave.
19Then the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and will be clean by evening.
20‘But the person who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, so he is unclean.
21So it shall be a permanent statute for them. And the one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity will be unclean until evening.
22Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches will be unclean; and the person who touches it will be unclean until evening.’ ”