Numbers 19:1-9 ▼

1 The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron:

2 This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded: 'Instruct the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without blemish, which has no defect and has never carried a yoke.

3 You must give it to Eleazar the priest so that he can take it outside the camp, and it must be slaughtered before him.

4 Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of the blood seven times directly in front of the tent of meeting.

5 Then the heifer must be burned in his sight--its skin, its flesh, its blood, and its offal is to be burned.

6 And the priest must take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool and throw them into the midst of the fire where the heifer is burning.

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

8 The one who burns it must wash his clothes in water and bathe himself in water. He will be ceremonially unclean until evening.

9 'Then a man who is ceremonially clean must gather up the ashes of the red heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept for the community of the Israelites for use in the water of purification--it is a purification for sin.