Purification Rites

19 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron:

² These are requirements of the law which the Lord has commanded.

Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without blemish, one that has no defect and that has never been under a yoke. ³ You are to give it to Eleazar the priest. He is to have it taken outside of the camp and slaughtered in his presence. ⁴ With his finger Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵ The heifer is to be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood are to be burned along with its manure. ⁶ The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the burning heifer. ⁷ Then the priest will wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water. Afterward he will come into the camp, and the priest will be unclean until evening. ⁸ The one who burns the heifer is to wash his clothing in water and bathe his flesh in water. He will remain unclean until evening.

⁹ A man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the heifer’s ashes and place them outside of the camp in a clean place. They will be kept for the Israelite congregation to use to make the water for removing impurity.^[a] It is a sin offering. ¹⁰ The one who gathers the heifer’s ashes is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This will be a permanent regulation for the Israelites and the aliens residing among them.

¹¹ Whoever touches the body of a dead person will be unclean for seven days. ¹² He is to purify himself with the water on the third day, and he will become clean on the seventh day. But if he does not purify himself on the third day, then he will not become clean on the seventh day. ¹³ Anyone who touches a dead human body but does not purify himself defiles the Lord’s Dwelling. That person must be cut off from Israel. He is unclean, because he has not sprinkled himself with the water for removing impurity. His uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ This is the law when someone dies in a tent: Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ Every open container without a lid on it is unclean.

¹⁶ Anyone in the open countryside who touches someone killed by a sword or someone who has died, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷ For the unclean person, take some of the ashes from the burnt sin offering, put them into a vessel, and add water from a flowing source^[b] to the ashes. ¹⁸ A ceremonially clean person is to take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the water on the tent, on all the items, and on the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle it on anyone who has touched someone who was killed or someone who has died and on anyone who has touched a grave or a human bone. ¹⁹ The ceremonially clean person will sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, after the ceremonially clean person has purified the unclean person, that person will wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be clean at evening. ²⁰ But anyone who is unclean and refuses to purify himself will be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water for removing impurity was not sprinkled on him, so he remains unclean. ²¹ This will be a permanent regulation for them. The one who sprinkles the water for removing impurity shall wash his clothing, and whoever touches the water for removing impurity will be unclean until evening.

²² Everything that the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person who touches those things will be unclean until evening.