Numbers 19:1-9 ▼

1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

2 “This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded: ‘Tell the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed.

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

4 Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of it toward the front of the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle) seven times.

5 Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its skin, its flesh, its blood, and its waste, shall be burned (reduced to ash).

6 The priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet [material] and cast them into the midst of the burning heifer.

7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; and afterward come into the camp, but he shall be [ceremonially] unclean until evening.

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

9 Now a man who is [ceremonially] clean shall collect the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the Israelites shall keep it for water to remove impurity; it is [to be used for] purification from sin.