1: And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron,
saying,
2: This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath
commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red
heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
3: And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring
her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:
4: And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger,
and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation
seven times:
5: And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin,
and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:
6: And
the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the
midst of the burning of the heifer.
7: Then the priest shall wash his
clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into
the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even.
8: 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: 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 separation: it is a purification for sin.
10: 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: He that
toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
12: He
shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall
be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he
shall not be clean.
13: Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man
that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD;
and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was
not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.
14: This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into
the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.
15: And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is
unclean.
16: And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in
the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be
unclean seven days.
17: And for an unclean person they shall take of
the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall
be put thereto in a vessel:
18: 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 a bone,
or one slain, or one dead, or a grave:
19: 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 himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in
water, and shall be clean at even.
20: But the man that shall be
unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the
congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the LORD: the water of
separation hath not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean.
21: And
it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of
separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation
shall be unclean until even.
22: And whatsoever the unclean person
toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until
even.