Numbers 19:1-13 ▼

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 unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been mounted.

3 And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.

4 And 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.

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

6 And the priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material, and throw it into the midst of the burning heifer.

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

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

9 Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep them for water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin.

10 And 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 person will also be unclean for seven days.

12 That one shall 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.

13 Anyone who touches a dead body, the body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Since the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he will be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.