1And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying , 2This is the statute of the law which Jehovah 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 . 3And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest , and he shall bring her forth without the camp , and one shall slay her before his face : 4and Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times . 5And one shall burn the heifer in his sight ; her skin , and her flesh , and her blood , with her dung , shall he burn : 6and the priest shall take cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet , and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer . 7Then 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 . 8And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water , and bathe his flesh in water , and shall be unclean until the even . 9And 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 for impurity : it is a sin-offering. 10And 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 .
The Process of Sacrifice and Preparation
11He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days : 12the same shall purify himself therewith 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 . 13Whosoever toucheth a dead person , the body of a man that hath died , and purifieth not himself , defileth the tabernacle of Jehovah ; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel : because the water for impurity was not sprinkled upon him , he shall be unclean ; his uncleanness is yet upon him . 14This is the law when a man dieth in a tent: every one that cometh into the tent, and every one that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days . 15And every open vessel , which hath no covering bound upon it , is unclean . 16And whosoever in the open field toucheth one that is slain with a sword , or a dead body , or a bone of a man , or a grave , shall be unclean seven days . 17And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin-offering; and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel : 18and 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 the bone , or the slain , or the dead , or the grave : 19and 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 him ; and he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water , and shall be clean at even . 20But the man that shall be unclean , and shall not purify himself , that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly , because he hath defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah : the water for impurity hath not been sprinkled upon him ; he is unclean .
The Importance of Purification
21And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them : and he that sprinkleth the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he that toucheth the water for impurity shall be unclean until even . 22And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean ; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even .