Numbers 19
Complete Jewish Bible
Parashah 39: Hukkat (Regulation) 19:1–22:1
[In regular years read with Parashah 40, in leap years read separately]
19 Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, 2 “This is the regulation from the Torah which Adonai has commanded. Tell the people of Isra’el to bring you a young red female cow without fault or defect and which has never borne a yoke. 3 You are to give it to El‘azar the cohen; it is to be brought outside the camp and slaughtered in front of him. 4 El‘azar the cohen is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle this blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5 The heifer is to be burned to ashes before his eyes — its skin, meat, blood and dung is to be burned to ashes. 6 The cohen is to take cedar-wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the heifer as it is burning up. 7 Then the cohen is to wash his clothes and himself in water, after which he may re-enter the camp; but the cohen will remain unclean until evening. 8 The person who burned up the heifer is to wash his clothes and himself in water, but he will remain unclean until evening. 9 A man who is clean is to collect the ashes of the heifer and store them outside the camp in a clean place. They are to be kept for the community of the people of Isra’el to prepare water for purification from sin. 10 The one who collected the ashes of the heifer is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. For the people of Isra’el and for the foreigner staying with them this will be a permanent regulation.
11 “Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose dead body it is, will be unclean for seven days. 12 He must purify himself with [these ashes] on the third and seventh days; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. 13 Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose dead body it is, and does not purify himself has defiled the tabernacle of Adonai. That person will be cut off from Isra’el, because the water for purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
14 “This is the law: when a person dies in a tent, everyone who enters the tent and everything in the tent will be unclean for seven days. 15 Every open container without a cover closely attached is unclean. 16 Also whoever is in an open field and touches a corpse, whether of someone killed by a weapon or of someone who died naturally, or the bone of a person, or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
17 “For the unclean person they are to take some of the ashes of the animal burned up as a purification from sin and add them to fresh water in a container. (LY: ii) 18 A clean person is to take a bunch of hyssop leaves, dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the containers, on the people who were there, and on the person who touched the bone or the person killed or the one who died naturally or the grave. 19 The clean person will sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days. On the seventh day he will purify him; then he will wash his clothes and himself in water; and he will be clean at evening. 20 The person who remains unclean and does not purify himself will be cut off from the community because he has defiled the sanctuary of Adonai. The water for purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. 21 This is to be a permanent regulation for them. The person who sprinkles the water for purification is to wash his clothes. Whoever touches the water for purification will be unclean until evening. 22 Anything the unclean person touches will be unclean, and anyone who touches him will be unclean until evening.”
Numbers 19
Legacy Standard Bible
Statute of the Red Heifer
19 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they take to you a (A)red heifer without blemish, in which is no defect and (B)on which a yoke has never [a]been placed. 3 And you shall give it to (C)Eleazar the priest, and it shall (D)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 (E)sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5 Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; (F)its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. 6 And the priest shall take (G)cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the [b]burning heifer. 7 The priest (H)shall then wash his clothes and bathe his [c]body in water and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8 The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his [d]body in water and shall be unclean until evening. 9 Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and [e]the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as (I)water to remove impurity; it is [f]purification from sin. 10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer (J)shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the sojourner who sojourns among them.
11 ‘(K)The one who touches the corpse of any [g]person shall be unclean for seven days. 12 That one shall (L)purify himself from uncleanness with [h]the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. 13 (M)Anyone who touches a corpse, the [i]body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, [j](N)makes the [k]tabernacle of Yahweh unclean; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not [l](O)splashed on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
14 ‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. 15 And every open vessel, which has no covering [m]tied down on it, shall be unclean. 16 (P)Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days. 17 Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the [n]ashes of the [o]burnt [p](Q)purification from sin and [q]flowing water shall be [r]added to them 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 furnishings and on the persons who were there and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave. 19 Then the clean person (R)shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.
20 ‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly because he has [s](S)made the sanctuary of Yahweh unclean; the water for impurity has not been [t]splashed on him; he is unclean. 21 So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he (T)who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. 22 (U)Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’”
Footnotes
- Numbers 19:2 Lit come up
- Numbers 19:6 Lit burning of the heifer
- Numbers 19:7 Lit flesh
- Numbers 19:8 Lit flesh
- Numbers 19:9 Lit it shall be to the congregation...Israel, for a guarding as water of impurity
- Numbers 19:9 Or a sin offering
- Numbers 19:11 Lit soul of man
- Numbers 19:12 Lit it
- Numbers 19:13 Lit soul
- Numbers 19:13 Or defiles, cf. Lev 20:3; Ezek 23:28
- Numbers 19:13 Lit dwelling place
- Numbers 19:13 Lit thrown
- Numbers 19:15 Lit cord
- Numbers 19:17 Lit dust
- Numbers 19:17 Lit burning of the
- Numbers 19:17 Or sin offering
- Numbers 19:17 Lit living
- Numbers 19:17 Lit put
- Numbers 19:20 Or defiled, cf. Lev 20:3; Ezek 23:28
- Numbers 19:20 Lit thrown
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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