1And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron , saying , 2This 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 : 3And 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: 4And 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 : 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 of separation : it is a purification for sin . 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 . 12He 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 . 13Whosoever 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. 14This 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 . 15And every open vessel , which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean . 16And 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 . 17And 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 : 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 a bone , or one slain , or one dead , or a 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 himself, and 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 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 .
The Importance of Purification
21And 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 . 22And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean ; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even .