Numbers 19

₁The Lord talked to Moses and Aaron and He said: ₂‘There is something that I am telling you to do: You must tell the Israelites to give you a healthy red-brown cow. It must be perfect and it must not have done any work. ₃Give the cow to the priest Eleazar. He must take the cow outside the camp and they must kill it. Eleazar must be there. ₄Then he must take some of the blood of the cow on his finger and he must sprinkle it against the entrance of the tent where I appear to the Israelites. He must do it 7 times. ₅Then they must burn the cow. Eleazar must be there. They must burn the skin, the meat and the blood with the dung. ₆The priest must take a piece of cedar wood, a hyssop-branch and a piece of red string and he must put it into the fire where they burn the cow. ₇Then he must wash his clothes and bathe. Then he may come into the camp, but he will be impure until that night. ₈The person who burnt the cow must also wash his clothes and bathe. He will also be impure.

₉Someone who is pure must get all the ashes of the cow and put them outside the camp at a place which is pure. The congregation_of_Israel must use these ashes when they want to prepare water to purify people. The cow is a sin-offering. ₁₀The person who went to get the ashes of the cow must wash his clothes and he will be impure until that night. The Israelites and the strangers who live among them must always do this.’

₁₁The Lord said: ‘When someone touches the body of a dead person, he will be impure for 7 days. ₁₂He must purify himself on the 3rd day and on the 7th day, then he will be pure again. But if he does not purify himself on the 3rd day and on the 7th day, he will not become pure. ₁₃If someone touches the body of a dead person and he does not purify himself, then the tent of the Lord will become impure if he goes to it, and then you must cut him off from the Israelites. No one has sprinkled water over him to make him pure and he will stay impure.

₁₄This is what you must do when someone dies in a tent: Everyone who comes into the tent and everything in the tent will be impure for 7 days. ₁₅Every open pot or bowl that does not have a lid will be impure.

₁₆If anyone outside in the field touches the dead body of someone who has died in war, or he touches any person who has died, or the bones of a dead body, or a grave, then he will be impure for 7 days.

₁₇If someone becomes impure like this, they must take the ashes of the cow that they have burnt for a sin-offering and they must pour water from a fountain into a pot with the ashes. ₁₈Then the person who is pure must take a hyssop-branch and put it into the water. He must sprinkle the water onto the tent and everything in the tent and on everyone who has touched a dead man's bones or the body of someone who has died, or a body of someone who has died in war, or a grave. ₁₉The person who is pure must sprinkle some of the water onto the impure person on the 3rd day and 7th day. The impure person must also wash his clothes and bathe. He will be pure after the 7 days.

₂₀If someone becomes impure but he does not purify himself, then they must cut him off from the congregation, because he has made the tent of the Lord impure. He is impure because no one has sprinkled water onto him to make him pure. ₂₁You must always do this. The person who sprinkled the water onto someone to purify him must wash his clothes and anyone who touches that water will be impure until that night. ₂₂Anything that an impure person touches will become impure, and any person who touches an impure thing like that will also become impure until that night.’