Regulations for Conduct of Priests^(A)

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ^(B)‘None shall defile himself for the dead among his people, ² except for his relatives who are nearest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; ³ also his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband, for her he may defile himself.

¹¹ nor shall he go ^(A)near any dead body, nor defile himself for his father or his mother;

^11 (A)‘He who touches the dead ^[a]body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. ^12 (B)He shall purify himself with the water 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. ¹³ Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and ^(C)does not purify himself, ^(D)defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because ^(E)the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; ^(F)his uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ ‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: All who come into the tent and all who are in the tent shall be unclean seven days; ¹⁵ and every ^(G)open vessel, which has no cover fastened on it, is unclean. ^16 (H)Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁷ ‘And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ^(I)ashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin, and ^[b]running water shall be put on them in a vessel. ¹⁸ A clean person shall take ^(J)hyssop and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, the slain, the dead, or a grave. ¹⁹ The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; ^(K)and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean.

²⁰ ‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has ^(L)defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. ²¹ It shall be a perpetual statute for them. He who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes; and he who touches the water of purification shall be unclean until evening. ^22 (M)Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and ^(N)the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”