Purification Ritual

19 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “This is the legal statute that the Lord has commanded: Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red cow that has no defect and has never been yoked.(A) Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. The cow must be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood, are to be burned along with its dung. The priest is to take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson yarn,(B) and throw them onto the fire where the cow is burning. Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may enter the camp, but he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening. The one who burned the cow must also wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he will remain unclean until evening.

“A man who is clean is to gather up the cow’s ashes and deposit them outside the camp in a ceremonially clean place. The ashes must be kept by the Israelite community for preparing the water to remove impurity; it is a sin offering.(C) 10 Then the one who gathers up the cow’s ashes must wash his clothes, and he will remain unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner who resides among them.

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Ashes of the Red Heifer

19 And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “This is the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the Israelites[a] and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke has not been placed.[b] And you will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be brought[c] out to a place outside the camp, and it will be slaughtered[d] in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest will take some of its blood on his finger and spatter it toward the mouth of the tent of assembly seven times. The heifer will be burned[e] in his sight; its skin, its meat, and its blood, in addition to its offal, will burn. The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson thread, and he will throw them in the midst of the burning heifer.[f] The priest will wash his garments and his body in the water, and afterward he will come to the camp; the priest will be unclean until the evening. The one who burns it will wash his garments and his body in water; he will be unclean until the evening. A clean man will gather the ashes of the heifer, and he will put them in a clean place outside the camp;[g] it will be for the community of the Israelites[h] as a requirement for waters of impurity; it is a purification offering. 10 The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer will wash his garments; he will be unclean until evening. It will be an eternal decree for the Israelites[i] and for one who dwells as an alien in their midst.

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Footnotes

  1. Numbers 19:2 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  2. Numbers 19:2 Literally “has not gone up”
  3. Numbers 19:3 Or “he will bring it out”
  4. Numbers 19:3 Or “he will slaughter it”
  5. Numbers 19:5 Hebrew “The heifer will burn”
  6. Numbers 19:6 Literally “the burning of the heifer”
  7. Numbers 19:9 Literally “an outside place of the camp”
  8. Numbers 19:9 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  9. Numbers 19:10 Literally “sons/children of Israel”