Numbers 19

19 ¹Our Father spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

²"This is the statute of the law our Father commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer, flawless, with no defect, never yoked. ³Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be led outside the camp and slaughtered before him. ⁴Eleazar the priest is to dip his finger in its blood and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. ⁵The heifer is to be burned as he watches—hide, flesh, blood, and waste together. ⁶The priest must take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. ⁷The priest must wash his clothes, bathe his body in water, then enter the camp—but remains unclean until evening. ⁸He who burns it must wash his clothes in water, bathe his body in water, and remain unclean until evening.

⁹"A clean man will gather the heifer's ashes and put them in a clean place outside the camp. Israel's community will keep them for water of cleansing—it removes sin. ¹⁰The one gathering the heifer's ashes must wash his clothes and remain unclean until evening. This is a permanent law for Israelites and the foreigner living among them.

¹¹"Whoever touches the dead body of any person is to be unclean for seven days. ¹²He must purify himself with it on days three and seven; then he'll be clean. If he doesn't purify himself on days three and seven, he won't be clean. ¹³Anyone who touches a corpse—the body of someone who died—and doesn't purify himself makes the tabernacle of our Father unclean; that person is cut off from Israel. Since the water of purification wasn't sprinkled on him, he stays unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

¹⁴"This is the law: when someone dies in a tent, everyone entering it and everyone in it is unclean seven days. ¹⁵And every open vessel that has no lid fastened on it is to be unclean.

¹⁶"Whoever touches, in an open field, one killed by the sword, one who has died naturally, a human bone, or a grave, becomes unclean seven days.

¹⁷"For the unclean person, they are to take ashes from the burned purification offering, put them in a vessel, and add fresh running water. ¹⁸A clean person is to take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on everyone who was there, and on whoever touched a bone, a slain person, a corpse, or a grave. ¹⁹The clean person is to sprinkle the unclean one on the third and seventh day, purifying him on the seventh day. He must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be clean by evening. ²⁰Anyone unclean who doesn't purify himself must be cut off from the assembly, for he has made our Father's sanctuary unclean; the water of purification wasn't sprinkled on him—he is unclean. ²¹This is a lasting statute for them: whoever sprinkles the water of purification must wash his clothes; whoever touches the water of purification is unclean until evening. ²²Whatever the unclean person touches becomes unclean; whoever touches that is unclean until evening."