16-21 “Anyone out in the open field who touches a corpse, whether dead from violent or natural causes, or a human bone or a grave is unclean for seven days. For this unclean person, take some ashes from the burned Absolution-Offering and add some fresh water to it in a bowl. Find a ritually clean man to dip a sprig of hyssop into the water and sprinkle the tent and all its furnishings, the persons who were in the tent, the one who touched the bones of the person who was killed or died a natural death, and whoever may have touched a grave. Then he is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days. On the seventh day he is considered cleansed. The cleansed person must then scrub his clothes and take a bath; by evening he is clean. But if an unclean person does not go through these cleansing procedures, he must be excommunicated from the community; he has desecrated the Sanctuary of God. The Water-of-Cleansing has not been sprinkled on him and he is ritually unclean. This is the standing rule for these cases.

“The man who sprinkles the Water-of-Cleansing has to scrub his clothes; anyone else who touched the Water-of-Cleansing is also ritually unclean until evening.

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18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop,(A) dip it in the water and sprinkle(B) the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave(C) or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death. 19 The man who is clean is to sprinkle(D) those who are unclean on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify them.(E) Those who are being cleansed must wash their clothes(F) and bathe with water, and that evening they will be clean. 20 But if those who are unclean do not purify themselves, they must be cut off from the community, because they have defiled(G) the sanctuary of the Lord.(H) The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, and they are unclean.(I) 21 This is a lasting ordinance(J) for them.

“The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening.

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