< Numbers 19 >

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying:
2 “This is the ritual that the Lord has appointed for a victim. Instruct the sons of Israel, so that they may bring to you a red cow of full maturity, in which there is no blemish, and which has not carried a yoke.
This is the statute of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer, faultless, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.
3 And you shall deliver it to Eleazar the priest, who, having led it out beyond the camp, shall immolate it in the sight of all.
And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, and she shall be brought forth without the camp, and she shall be slain before his face.
4 And dipping his finger in its blood, he shall sprinkle it seven times, opposite the door of the tabernacle.
And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
5 And he shall burn it, while all are watching, delivering into the flame, not only its skin and flesh, but also the blood and dung.
And the heifer shall be burnt in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall be burnt.
6 Likewise, cedar wood, and hyssop, and twice-dyed scarlet he shall cast into the flame, by which the cow is consumed.
And the priest shall take cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
7 And then finally, having washed his garments and his body, he shall enter into the camp, and he shall be deeply stained until evening.
Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even.
8 Then he also who had burned it shall wash his garments and his body, and he shall be unclean until evening.
And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.
9 Then a clean man shall gather the ashes of the cow, and he shall pour them out beyond the camp, in a very pure place, so that they may be preserved for the multitude of the sons of Israel, and for the water of aspersion, because the cow was burned for sin.
And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of sprinkling; it is a purification from sin.
10 And when he who had carried the ashes of the cow will have washed his garments, he shall be unclean until evening. The sons of Israel, and the newcomers who live among them, shall have this as a holy and perpetual right.
And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even; and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.
11 Whoever touches the corpse of a man, and is, because of this, unclean for seven days,
He that toucheth the dead, even any man's dead body, shall be unclean seven days;
12 shall be sprinkled from this water on the third and seventh days, and so shall he be cleansed. But if he was not sprinkled on the third day, he is not able to be cleansed on the seventh.
the same shall purify himself therewith on the third day and on the seventh day, and he shall be clean; but if he purify not himself the third day and the seventh day, he shall not be clean.
13 Anyone who will have touched the dead body of a human life, and who has not been sprinkled with this mixture, pollutes the tabernacle of the Lord, and he shall perish out of Israel. For not having been sprinkled with the water of expiation, he shall be unclean, and his filth shall remain upon him.
Whosoever toucheth the dead, even the body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself — he hath defiled the tabernacle of the LORD — that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water of sprinkling was not dashed against him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.
14 This is the law of a man who dies in a tent. All who enter into his tent, and all the vessels which are there, shall be polluted for seven days.
This is the law: when a man dieth in a tent, every one that cometh into the tent, and every thing that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.
15 The vessel that has no cover or binding over it shall be unclean.
And every open vessel, which hath no covering close-bound upon it, is unclean.
16 If anyone in the field will have touched the corpse of a man, who was killed or who died on his own, or his bone, or his grave, he shall be unclean for seven days.
And whosoever in the open field toucheth one that is slain with a sword, or one that dieth of himself, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
17 And they shall take some of the ashes from the burning and the sin offering, and they shall pour living waters over them into a vessel.
And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the purification from sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel.
18 And into it a man who is clean shall dip hyssop, and he shall sprinkle from it the entire tent, and all its articles, and the men who were polluted by means of contact.
And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave.
19 And so, in this manner, what is clean shall purify what is unclean, on the third and seventh days. And having been expiated on the seventh day, he shall wash both himself and his garments, and he shall be unclean until evening.
And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him; and he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.
20 If anyone has not been expiated by this ritual, his soul shall perish from the midst of the Church. For he has polluted the Sanctuary of the Lord, and he has not been sprinkled with purifying waters.
But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the LORD; the water of sprinkling hath not been dashed against him: he is unclean.
21 This precept shall be an everlasting ordinance. Likewise, the one who has sprinkled the waters shall wash his garments. All who will have touched the waters of expiation shall be unclean until evening.
And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them; and he that sprinkleth the water of sprinkling shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of sprinkling shall be unclean until even.
22 Whatever has been touched by something unclean will itself be made unclean. And the soul who touches any of these things shall become unclean until evening.”
And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth him shall be unclean until even.

< Numbers 19 >