The Red Heifer
1Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, 2“This is the statute of the law that Yahweh has commanded: Speak to the Israelites, and let them bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which no yoke has been laid. 3You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. 4Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. 5The heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide, its flesh, and its blood, together with its dung, shall be burned. 6The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire where the heifer is burning. 7Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, but the priest will be unclean until evening. 8The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and he will be unclean until evening. 9A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. They shall be kept for the congregation of the Israelites for the water for impurity; it is a purification offering. 10The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This shall be a lasting statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner who resides among them.
The Law of the Corpse
11Whoever touches a human corpse shall be unclean seven days. 12He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day, then on the seventh day he will not be clean. 13Whoever touches a corpse, the body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of Yahweh, and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he remains unclean; his uncleanness is still on him. 14This is the law: when a person dies in a tent, everyone who enters the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. 15Every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. 16Whoever in the open field touches someone slain by a sword, or a corpse, or a human bone, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. 17For the unclean person, they shall take some ashes from the burning of the purification offering and put fresh water on them in a vessel. 18Then a clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all its vessels, on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone, or the slain, or the corpse, or the grave. 19The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean one on the third day and on the seventh day, and on the seventh day he shall purify him. Then he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he will be clean by evening. 20But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself — that person shall be cut off from the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. 21This shall be a lasting statute for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. 22Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.”
