1    2   The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and said: This is a law and a statute which the Lord has ordained. Tell the Israelites to bring you a red cow without blemish or defect, which has never borne the yoke. 3   You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered ^note to the east of it. 4   Eleazar the priest shall take some of the blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times towards the front of the Tent of the Presence. 5   The cow shall be burnt in his sight, skin, flesh, and blood, together with the offal. 6   The priest shall then take cedar-wood, marjoram, and scarlet thread, and throw them into the heart of the fire in which the cow is burning. 7   He shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after which he may enter the camp, but he remains ritually unclean till sunset. 8   The man who burnt the cow shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, but he also remains unclean till sunset. 9   Then a man who is clean shall collect the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. They shall be reserved for use by the Israelite community in the water of ritual purification; for the cow is a sin-offering. 10   The man who collected the ashes of the cow shall wash his clothes, but he remains unclean till sunset. This rule shall be binding for all time on the Israelites and on the alien who is living with them.

11   Whoever touches a corpse shall be ritually unclean for seven days. 12   He shall get himself purified with the water of ritual purification on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he shall be clean. If he is not purified both on the third day and on the seventh, he shall not be clean. 13   Everyone who touches a corpse, that is the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the Tabernacle of the Lord. That

The journey from Sinai to Edom person shall be cut off from Israel. The water of purification has not been flung over him; he remains unclean, and his impurity is still upon him.

14   When a man dies in a tent, this is the law: everyone who goes into the tent and everyone who was inside the tent shall be ritually unclean for seven days, 15   and every open vessel which has no covering tied over it shall also be unclean. 16   In the open, anyone who touches a man killed with a weapon or one who has died naturally, or who touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days. 17   For such uncleanness, they shall take some of the ash from the burnt mass of the sin-offering and add fresh water to it in a vessel. 18   Then a man who is clean shall take marjoram, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent with all the vessels in it and all the people who were there, or the man who has touched a human bone, a corpse (whether the man was killed or died naturally), or a grave. 19   The man who is clean shall sprinkle the unclean man on the third day and on the seventh; on the seventh day he shall purify him; then the man shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and at sunset he shall be clean. 20   If a man who is unclean does not get himself purified, that person shall be cut off from the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of purification has not been flung over him: he is unclean. 21   This rule shall be binding on you ^note for all time. The man who sprinkles the water of purification shall also wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water shall be unclean till sunset. 22   Whatever the unclean man touches shall be unclean, and any person who touches that shall be unclean till sunset.

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