¹⁵ The elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the Lord.^(A)

⁴ You shall lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be acceptable on your behalf as atonement for you.^(A)

³ The elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked, one that has not pulled in the yoke; ⁴ the elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to a wadi with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the wadi. ⁵ Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord, and by their decision all cases of dispute and assault shall be settled.^{(A) 6} All the elders of that town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi, ⁷ and they shall declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to it. ⁸ Absolve, O Lord, your people Israel, whom you redeemed; do not let the guilt of innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel.’ Then they will be absolved of bloodguilt.^{(B) 9} So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, because you must do what is right in the sight of the Lord.^(C)

²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.^(A)

The Seventy Elders

¹⁶ So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting and have them take their place there with you.^(A)

¹⁰ When you bring the Levites before the Lord, the Israelites shall lay their hands on the Levites,

²¹ Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task.^[a](A)

²² Then he brought forward the second ram, the ram of ordination. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram,^(A)

¹⁴ He led forward the bull of purification offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bull for the purification offering,^(A)

⁴ He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull; the bull shall be slaughtered before the Lord.^(A)