Numbers 19

1 The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

2 “This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded. Tell the children of Israel to bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no defect, and which was never yoked.

This is the observance of the victim, which the Lord hath ordained. Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee a red cow of full age, in which there is no blemish, and which hath not carried the yoke:

3 You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face.

And you shall deliver her to Eleazar the priest, who shall bring her forth without the camp, and shall immolate her in the sight of all:

4 Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood towards the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times.

And dipping his finger in her blood, shall sprinkle it over against the door of the tabernacle seven times,

5 One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her meat, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn.

And shall burn her in the sight of all, delivering up to the fire her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, and her dung.

6 The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the middle of the burning of the heifer.

The priest shall also take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet twice dyed, and cast it into the flame, with which the cow is consumed.

7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.

And then after washing his garments, and body, he shall enter into the camp, and shall be unclean until the evening.

8 He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.

He also that hath burned her, shall wash his garments, and his body, and shall be unclean until the evening.

9 “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for use in water for cleansing impurity. It is a sin offering.

And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the cow, and shall pour them forth without the camp in a most clean place, that they may be reserved for the multitude of the children of Israel, and for a water of aspersion: because the cow was burnt for sin.

10 He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening. It shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner amongst them, for a statute forever.

And when he that carried the ashes of the cow, hath washed his garments, he shall be unclean until the evening. The children of Israel, and the strangers that dwell among them, shall observe this for a holy thing by a perpetual ordinance.

11 “He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

He that toucheth the corpse of a man, and is therefore unclean seven days,

12 He shall purify himself with water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he doesn’t purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

Shall be sprinkled with this water on the third day, and on the seventh, and so shall be cleansed. If he were not sprinkled on the third day, he cannot be cleansed on the seventh.

13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn’t purify himself, defiles the LORD’s tabernacle; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet on him.

Every one that toucheth the corpse of a man, and is not sprinkled with mixture, shall profane the tabernacle of the Lord, and shall perish out of Israel: because he was not sprinkled with the water of expiation, he shall be unclean, and his uncleanness shall remain upon him.

14 “This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.

This is the law of a mall that dieth in a tent: All that go into his tent and all the vessels that are there, shall be unclean seven days.

15 Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean.

The vessel that hath no cover, nor binding over it, shall be unclean.

16 “Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

If any man in the field touch the corpse of a man that was slain, or that died of himself, or his bone, or his grave, he shall be unclean seven days.

17 “For the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured on them in a vessel.

And they shall take of the ashes of the burning and of the sin offering, and shall pour living waters upon them into a vessel.

18 A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave.

And a man that is clean shall dip hyssop in them, and shall sprinkle therewith all the tent, and all the furniture, and the men that are defiled with touching any such thing:

19 The clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall purify him. He shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening.

And in this manner he that is clean shall purify the unclean on the third and on the seventh day. And being expiated the seventh day, he shall wash both himself and his garments, and be unclean until the evening.

20 But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from amongst the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean.

If any man be not expiated after this rite, his soul shall perish out of the midst of the church: because he hath profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, and was not sprinkled with the water of purification.

21 It shall be a perpetual statute to them. He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.

This precept shall be an ordinance for ever. He also that sprinkled the water, shall wash his garments. Every one that shall touch the waters of expiation, shall be unclean until the evening.

22 “Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.”

Whatsoever a person toucheth who is unclean, he shall make it unclean: and the person that toucheth any of these things, shall be unclean until the evening.