Numbers 19:1-10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Ceremony of the Red Heifer
19 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “This is a statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which no yoke has been laid.(A) 3 You shall give it to the priest Eleazar, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.(B) 4 The priest Eleazar shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting.(C) 5 Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its entrails,[a] shall be burned. 6 The priest shall take cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson material and throw them into the fire in which the heifer is burning.(D) 7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, but the priest shall remain unclean until evening.(E) 8 The one who burns the heifer[b] shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water; he shall remain unclean until evening. 9 Then someone who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and they shall be kept for the congregation of the Israelites for the water for cleansing. It is a purification offering.(F) 10 The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.
“This shall be a perpetual statute for the Israelites and for the alien residing among them.
Read full chapterNew Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.