Laws Concerning Purification
Numbers 19, verse 1. Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Numbers 19, verse 2. “This is the injunction of the law, whatever the Lord ordered, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and let them bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and upon which a yoke has never been placed. Numbers 19, verse 3. You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and he shall take it outside the camp to a clean place, and they shall slaughter it before him; Numbers 19, verse 4. and Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood and sprinkle it seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of testimony. Numbers 19, verse 5. Then it shall be burned in his sight: its hide, its flesh, and its blood with its dung shall be burned. Numbers 19, verse 6. The priest shall then take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet, and cast them into the midst of the fire burning the red heifer. Numbers 19, verse 7. After this, the priest shall wash his clothes, bathe his body in water, and come into the camp; the priest shall be unclean until evening. Numbers 19, verse 8. Also the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, bathe his body in water, and be unclean until evening. Numbers 19, verse 9. Then a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the red heifer and put them away outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept in reserve for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of sprinkling; it is for purification. Numbers 19, verse 10. Then the one who gathers the ashes of the red heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. It shall be an eternal ordinance to the children of Israel and to the resident alien who dwells among them. Numbers 19, verse 11. ‘He who touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. Numbers 19, verse 12. He shall cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. Numbers 19, verse 13. Whoever touches the dead body of any person who has died and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That soul shall be destroyed from Israel. He shall be unclean, because the water of sprinkling was not sprinkled on him; his uncleanness is still on him. Numbers 19, verse 14. ‘Now this is the law if a man dies in a house: Everyone who comes into the house and whoever is in the house shall be unclean seven days; Numbers 19, verse 15. and every open vessel which has no cover fastened on it is unclean. Numbers 19, verse 16. Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword or who has died a natural death, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. Numbers 19, verse 17. So for the unclean, they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt offering of purification, put them in a vessel, and pour running water on them. Numbers 19, verse 18. Then a clean man shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the house and upon all the vessels and the souls who were there, and upon the one who touched the human bone, or the one slain by the sword, or the one who died a natural death, or the grave. Numbers 19, verse 19. The clean shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and he shall be unclean until evening. Numbers 19, verse 20. But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that soul shall be utterly destroyed from among the congregation, because he defiled the holy things of the Lord, and the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; he is unclean. Numbers 19, verse 21. This shall be an eternal ordinance for you: He who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes; and he who touches the water of purification shall be unclean until evening; Numbers 19, verse 22. and whatever the unclean one touches shall be unclean; and the soul who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’”