Numbers 19
Ashes of a Red Heifer, Burned Outside the Camp
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Preparation of the Water of Cleansing
19:1The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
19:2This is the provision of the law that the Lord has commanded: Speak to the sons of Israel, and let them bring you a red heifer, unblemished and without defect, on which no yoke has been laid.
19:3You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and they shall take it outside the camp to a clean place and slaughter it before him.
19:4Eleazar shall take some of its blood and sprinkle some of its blood seven times toward the front of the Tent of Testimony.
19:5They shall burn it before him; its skin, flesh, and blood, together with its dung, shall be burned.
19:6The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material, and they shall throw them into the burning heifer.
19:7The priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. Afterward he may enter the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.
19:8The one who burns it shall wash his clothes and bathe his body, and he shall be unclean until evening.
19:9A clean person shall gather the heifer's ashes and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. They shall be kept for the congregation of the sons of Israel as water for sprinkling; it is a means of purification.
19:10The one who gathers the heifer's ashes shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This shall be a perpetual ordinance for the sons of Israel and the attached sojourners.
Application of the Purification Law
19:11Whoever touches a dead person, any human being who has died, shall be unclean for seven days.
19:12That person shall be purified on the third day and on the seventh day, and he shall be clean. If he is not purified on the third day and on the seventh day, he shall not be clean.
19:13Whoever touches the dead body of a human being and is not purified defiles the Lord's tent. That person shall be wiped out from Israel. Because water for sprinkling was not sprinkled around him, he is unclean; his uncleanness is still in him.
19:14This is the law: If a person dies in a house, everyone who enters the house and everything in the house shall be unclean for seven days.
19:15Every open vessel without a fastening tied upon it is unclean.
19:16Anyone who touches, on the open plain, one slain, a dead person, a human bone, or a tomb shall be unclean for seven days.
19:17For the unclean person they shall take some ashes from what was burned for purification, and they shall pour living water over them into a vessel.
19:18A clean man shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it around the house, the vessels, and the people who were there, and on whoever touched the human bone, the slain person, the dead person, or the tomb.
19:19The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. He shall be purified on the seventh day, wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and he shall be unclean until evening.
19:20A person who is defiled and is not purified shall be destroyed from the congregation, because he has defiled the Lord's holy things. Water for sprinkling has not been sprinkled around him; he is unclean.
19:21This shall be a perpetual ordinance for you. The one who sprinkles the water for sprinkling shall wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water for sprinkling shall be unclean until evening.
19:22Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.