Numbers 19  Modern English Version

Laws of Purification

19 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: ² This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: Tell the children of Israel that they will bring you a healthy red heifer, which has no blemish, and on which a yoke has never gone, ³ and you will give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will bring it outside the camp, and it will be slaughtered before him. ⁴ And Eleazar the priest will take from its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood directly before the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵ Then it will be burned in his sight. Its hide and its flesh and its blood, with her dung, will be burned. ⁶ And the priest will take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet and throw it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. ⁷ Then the priest will wash his clothes, and he will bathe his body in water, and afterward he will come into the camp, and the priest will be unclean until evening. ⁸ He who burns it will wash his clothes in water, and bathe his body in water, and will be unclean until evening.

⁹ A man who is clean will gather the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and it will be guarded for the assembly of the children of Israel for water of purification. It is for purifying from sin. ¹⁰ He that gathers the ashes of the heifer will wash his clothes and be unclean until evening, and it will be for the children of Israel and for the foreigner that lives among them, for an eternal statute.

¹¹ He that touches the dead body of any man will be unclean seven days. ¹² He will make himself clean on the third day, and on the seventh day he will be clean. But if he does not make himself clean on the third day, then the seventh day he will not be clean. ¹³ Whoever touches the body of any man that is dead and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person will be cut off from Israel. Because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him, he will be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ This is the law, when a man dies in a tent. Each person who comes into the tent and all that is in the tent will be unclean seven days. ¹⁵ Every open vessel which has no covering fastened on it is unclean.

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

¹⁷ For an unclean person they will take from the ashes of the burnt sin offering, and running water will be on it in a vessel. ¹⁸ A clean person will take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and splash it on the tent, and on all the vessels, and on the people who were there, and on him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. ¹⁹ The clean person will splash on the unclean person 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 will be clean at evening. ²⁰ But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person will be cut off from among the assembly because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean. ²¹ It will be an eternal statute to them.

He that sprinkles the water of purification will wash his clothes, and he that touches the water of purification will be unclean until evening. ²² Whatever the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person that touches it will be unclean until evening.