1And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, and said, 2“This is a requirement of the law which the LORD has commanded. Tell the Israelites to bring a red heifer that is without defect or blemish, and has never been under a yoke. 3And you shall give her to Eleazar, the priest, that he may take her outside the camp, and be slaughtered in his presence. 4And Eleazar shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle it directly toward (in the direction of) the tabernacle of meeting seven times: 5And the heifer shall be burned in his sight; her skin, flesh, blood, and her dung he shall burn. 6And the priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet; and throw it onto the burning heifer. 7Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come back into the camp, and he shall be unclean until the evening. 8And the one that burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water, bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening. 9And then a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp, and it shall be kept there for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is for purification from sin. 10And the one that gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening: and this shall be a statute forever to the Israelites, and to the stranger that sojourns among them. 11Whoever touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. 12He shall purify himself with the heifer’s ashes on the third day; and on the seventh day, he shall be clean. But if he does not purify himself the third day, then on the seventh day he shall not be clean. 13Whoever touches the body of any dead man, and does not purify himself, defiles 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 remain unclean. 14This is the law, when a man dies in a tent: any that come into the tent, and any that are in the tent shall be unclean seven days. 15And every open vessel, with no covering bound upon it, is unclean. 16And whoever touches 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. 17And for purification of an unclean person, they shall take some of the ashes of the red heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be added to it in a vessel: 18And a clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, upon all the vessels, upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave: 19And a clean person shall sprinkle it upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. And on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water; and shall be clean at evening. 20But the man that shall become unclean, and does not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD: the water of separation has not been sprinkled upon him; he remains unclean. 21This shall be a perpetual statute to them: that he that sprinkles the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that touches the water of separation shall be unclean until evening. 22And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.” Reader-Friendly Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2024 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |