NumbersChapter 19

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¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, ²"This is a rule of the law that the LORD has given. Tell the Israelites to bring you a red young cow. It must be perfect, with nothing wrong with it. It must never have worn a yoke. ³Give it to Eleazar the priest. He will have it taken outside the camp. There it will be killed while he watches. ⁴Eleazar the priest is to put some of its blood on his finger. Then he will sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵Then the cow must be burned while he watches. Its skin, its meat, and its blood are to be burned. Its dung must be burned too. ⁶The priest is to take cedar wood, hyssop, and red wool. He will throw them onto the burning cow. ⁷Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. After that he may come into the camp. But he will be unclean until evening. ⁸The man who burned the cow must also wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. He too will be unclean until evening. ⁹Then a man who is clean is to gather up the cow's ashes. He will store them in a clean place outside the camp. The people of Israel must keep the ashes. They will use them to make the water for cleansing. This is for cleansing from sin. ¹⁰The man who gathered up the ashes must also wash his clothes. He will be unclean until evening. This is a rule that lasts forever. It is for the Israelites and for the foreigner who lives among them. ¹¹Anyone who touches a dead body will be unclean for seven days. ¹²He must make himself clean with the water on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. But if he does not make himself clean on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. ¹³Anyone who touches a dead person and does not make himself clean makes the LORD's tabernacle unclean. That person must be cut off from Israel. He stays unclean, because the water for cleansing was not sprinkled on him. He is still unclean. ¹⁴This is the law for when a person dies in a tent. Everyone who goes into the tent will be unclean for seven days. So will everyone who is already in the tent. ¹⁵And any open pot without a lid tied on it is unclean. ¹⁶Someone out in an open field may touch a person who was killed with a sword. Or he may touch someone who died a natural death. Or he may touch a human bone or a grave. Anyone who does this will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁷Here is how to make the unclean person clean. Take some ashes from the burnt sin offering and put them in a jar. Then pour fresh water over them. ¹⁸Then a man who is clean is to take some hyssop and dip it in the water. He will sprinkle the tent, all the things in it, and the people who were there. He will also sprinkle the person who touched a bone or a grave. He will sprinkle the one who touched someone who died or was killed. ¹⁹The clean man is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day he will make him clean. Then the person being cleansed must wash his clothes and bathe in water. That evening he will be clean. ²⁰But if a person who is unclean does not make himself clean, he will be cut off from the people. That is because he has made the LORD's holy place unclean. The water for cleansing has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean. ²¹This is a rule for the people that lasts forever. The one who sprinkles the water for cleansing must wash his clothes. And whoever touches the water for cleansing will be unclean until evening. ²²Anything the unclean person touches will become unclean. And anyone who touches that thing will be unclean until evening."