Numbers 19

1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, 2 “This is the ruling of the law, as the Lord has commanded. Speak to the children of Israel and have them bring you a red heifer without blemish, with no mark on her, and on which no yoke has ever been put. [a] 3 And you are to give her to Eleazar the priest; and they are to take her outside the camp to a clean place, and kill her in front of him. 4 And Eleazar is to take some of her blood and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of witness. 5 And they are to burn her to ashes in front of him — her hide and her flesh and her blood, with her dung, all burned up. 6 And the priest is to take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet wool, and throw them into the middle of the burning heifer. [b] 7 And the priest is to wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and after that he may go into the camp; and the priest will be unclean until evening. 8 And the man who burns her is to wash his clothes and bathe his body, and he will be unclean until evening. 9 And a man who is clean is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them away in a clean place outside the camp; and they are to be kept for the gathering of the children of Israel. It is the water for sprinkling, a cleansing. 10 And the one who gathers up the ashes of the heifer is to wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening. This is to be a lasting practice for the children of Israel and for the newcomers joined to them.

11 Whoever touches the dead body of any person will be unclean seven days. 12 He is to be cleansed with this water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he is not cleansed on the third day and the seventh day, he will not be clean. 13 Everyone who touches the dead body of a person who has died, and is not cleansed, has defiled the tent of the Lord. That soul will be destroyed from Israel, because the water for sprinkling has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

14 And this is the law: if a man dies in a house, everyone who goes into the house, and everything in the house, will be unclean seven days. 15 And every open vessel that has no lid tied down on it will be unclean. 16 And anyone who touches, out in the open field, someone killed by violence, or a dead body, or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean seven days. 17 And for the one who is unclean they are to take some of the burnt ashes of the cleansing, and pour running water over them into a vessel. [c] 18 And a man who is clean is to take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the house, and on the furniture, and on all the souls who are in it, and on the one who touched the human bone, or the man killed, or the dead body, or the grave. 19 And the clean man is to sprinkle the water on the unclean man on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he is to be cleansed. And the man is to wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he will be unclean until evening. 20 And any man who becomes defiled and does not cleanse himself — that soul will be destroyed from among the gathering, because he has defiled the holy things of the Lord. The water for sprinkling has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. 21 And this is to be a lasting practice for you. And the one who sprinkles the water for sprinkling is to wash his clothes; and whoever touches the water for sprinkling will be unclean until evening. 22 And whatever the unclean man touches will be unclean, and the soul who touches it will be unclean until evening.”