Numbers 19

1Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

2This is the statute of the law which Yahweh commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and upon which no yoke has come.

3You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside the camp, and one shall slaughter her before him.

4Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

5He shall burn the heifer before his eyes and burn its skin, its flesh, its blood with its dung.

6The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet worm, and throw it into the middle of the heifer's burning.

7The priest shall wash his clothing and bathe his body in water, and afterward he shall enter the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until evening.

8The one who burns her shall wash his garments in water, bathe his flesh in water, and remain unclean until evening.

9A clean man shall gather the ashes of the heifer and lay them outside the camp in a clean place; it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for waters of impurity: it is a sin offering.

10The one who gathers the heifer's ashes shall wash his garments and remain unclean until evening; it shall be an eternal statute for Israel's sons and the resident alien among them.

11Whoever touches the corpse of any human being shall be unclean seven days.

12He must cleanse himself with it on the third day and on the seventh day become clean, but if he does not cleanse himself on the third day, then on the seventh day he will not become clean.

13Anyone who touches a corpse—the body of a human who dies—and does not purify himself defiles Yahweh's tabernacle; that person shall be cut off from Israel, because the water of impurity was not sprinkled on him; he remains unclean, with his uncleanness still upon him.

14This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who enters the tent and everyone inside it will be unclean seven days.

15Every open vessel that has no covering cord on it is unclean.

16Whoever touches in the open field someone slain by a sword, or a corpse, or a human bone, or a grave will be unclean seven days.

17They shall take for the unclean some ashes from the burning of the sin offering and put living water on it in a vessel.

18A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the people who were there, and on anyone who touched a bone, or someone slain, or a corpse, or a grave.

19The clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day, and shall purify him on the seventh day; he shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be clean at evening.

20But anyone who becomes unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled Yahweh's sanctuary—the water of impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.

21It shall be an eternal statute for them: the one who sprinkles the water of impurity must wash his garments, and the one who touches the water of impurity will be unclean until evening.

22Whatever an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and the person who touches it becomes unclean until evening.