THE BOOK OF NUMBERS

 

Numbers Chapter 19

1 ¶ And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

2 This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, Tell the children of Israel to bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no blemish, and upon which a yoke has never come:

3 And you shall give her to Eleazar the priest, that he may take her outside the camp, and she shall be slaughtered before him:

4 And Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle it directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times:

5 And one shall burn the heifer as he looks on; he shall burn her skin, her flesh, and her blood, with her dung:

6 And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

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

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

9 And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and put them outside the camp in a clean place, and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.

10 And he who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening: and this shall be a perpetual statute for the children of Israel, and for the stranger who dwells among them.

11 ¶ He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean for seven days.

12 He shall cleanse himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he does not purify himself on the third day, then he shall not be clean on the seventh day.

13 Whoever touches the dead body of any man who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still upon him.

14 This is the law, when a man dies in a tent: all who come into the tent, and everything that is in the tent, shall be unclean for seven days.

15 And every open vessel, which has no covering fastened on it, is unclean.

16 And whoever touches one who has been slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or the bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.

17 And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt heifer as purification for sin, and running water shall be put with it in a vessel:

18 And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and on all the vessels, and on all the persons who were there, and on the one who touched a bone, or the slain, or one who died, or a grave:

19 And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening.

20 But the man who is unclean, but does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the congregation, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD: the water of separation has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.

21 And it shall be a perpetual statute to them, that he who sprinkles the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he who touches the water of separation shall be unclean until evening.

22 And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.