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.