1 The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron,
2 “ This is the legal statute that the LORD has commanded: Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red cow that has no defect and has never been yoked .
3 Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
4 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.
5 The cow must be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood, are to be burned along with its dung.
6 The priest is to take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson yarn , and throw them onto the fire where the cow is burning.
7 Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may enter the camp, but he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening.
8 The one who burned the cow must also wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he will remain unclean until evening.
9 “ A man who is clean is to gather up the cow’s ashes and deposit them outside the camp in a ceremonially clean place. The ashes must be kept by the Israelite community for preparing the water to remove impurity; it is a sin offering.
10 Then the one who gathers up the cow’s ashes must wash his clothes, and he will remain unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner who resides among them.
11 “ The person who touches any human corpse will be unclean for seven days.
12 He is to purify himself with the water on the third day and the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean.
13 Anyone who touches a body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD . That person will be cut off from Israel. He remains unclean because the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, and his uncleanness is still on him.
