The Ceremony To Wash Away Sin
1-2 The Lord gave Moses and Aaron the following law:
The people of Israel must bring Moses a reddish-brown cow that has nothing wrong with it and that has never been used for plowing. 3 Moses will give it to Eleazar the priest, then it will be led outside the camp and killed while Eleazar watches. 4 He will dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times in the direction of the sacred tent. 5 Then the whole cow, including its skin, meat, blood, and insides must be burned. 6 A priest is to throw a stick of cedar wood, a hyssop branch, and a piece of red yarn into the fire.
7 After the ceremony, the priest is to take a bath and wash his clothes. Only then can he go back into the camp, but he remains unclean and unfit for worship until evening. 8 The man who burned the cow must also wash his clothes and take a bath, but he is also unclean until evening.
9 A man who isn't unclean must collect the ashes of the burnt cow and store them outside the camp in a clean place. The people of Israel can mix these ashes with the water used in the ceremony to wash away sin. 10 The man who collects the ashes must wash his clothes, but will remain unclean until evening. This law must always be obeyed by the people of Israel and the foreigners living among them.
What Must Be Done after Touching a Dead Body
The Lord said:
11 If you touch a dead body, you will be unclean for seven days. 12 But if you wash with the water mixed with the cow's ashes on the third day and again on the seventh day, you will be clean and acceptable for worship. You must wash yourself on those days; if you don't, you will remain unclean. 13 Suppose you touch a dead body, but refuse to be made clean by washing with the water mixed with ashes. You will be guilty of making my sacred tent unclean and will no longer belong to the people of Israel.
14 If someone dies in a tent while you are there, you will be unclean for seven days. And anyone who later enters the tent will also be unclean. 15 Any open jar in the tent is unclean.
16 If you touch the body of someone who died or was killed, or if you touch a human bone or a grave, you will be unclean for seven days.
17-18 Before you can be made clean, someone who is clean must take some of the ashes from the burnt cow and stir them into a pot of spring water. That same person must dip a hyssop branch in the water and ashes, then sprinkle it on the tent and everything in it, including everyone who was inside. If you have touched a human bone, a grave, or a dead body, you must be sprinkled with that water. 19 If this is done on the third day and on the seventh day, you will be clean. Then after you take a bath and wash your clothes, you can worship that evening.
20 If you are unclean and refuse to be made clean by washing with the water mixed with ashes, you will be guilty of making my sacred tent unclean, and you will no longer belong to the people of Israel. 21 These laws will never change.
The man who sprinkled the water and the ashes on you when you were unclean must also wash his clothes. And whoever touches this water is unclean until evening. 22 When you are unclean, everything you touch becomes unclean, and anyone who touches you will be unclean until evening.
1 And the Lord spake to Moses, and to Aaron, saying, 2 This is the ordinance of the lawe, which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speake vnto the children of Israel that they bring thee a red kow without blemish, wherein is no spot, vpon the which neuer came yoke. 3 And ye shall giue her vnto Eleazar ye Priest, that hee may bring her without the hoste, and cause her to be slaine before his face. 4 Then shall Eleazar the Priest take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle it before the Tabernacle of the Congregation seuen times, 5 And cause the kow to be burnt in his sight: with her skinne, and her flesh, and her blood, and her doung shall he burne her. 6 Then shall the Priest take cedar wood, and hyssope and skarlet lace, and cast them in the mids of the fire where the kow burneth. 7 Then shall the Priest wash his clothes, and he shall wash his flesh in water, and then come into the hoste, and the Priest shalbe vncleane vnto the euen. 8 Also he that burneth her, shall wash his clothes in water, and wash his flesh in water, and be vncleane vntill euen. 9 And a man, that is cleane, shall take vp the ashes of the kow, and put them without the hoste in a cleane place: and it shalbe kept for the Congregation of the children of Israel for a sprinkling water: it is a sinne offring. 10 Therefore he that gathereth the ashes of the kow, shall wash his clothes, and remaine vncleane vntil euen: and it shalbe vnto the children of Israel, and vnto the stranger that dwelleth among them, a statute for euer. 11 Hee that toucheth the dead body of any man, shalbe vncleane euen seuen dayes. 12 Hee shall purifie himselfe therewith the third day, and the seuenth day he shall be cleane: but if he purifie not himselfe the thirde day, then the seuenth day he shall not be cleane. 13 Whosoeuer toucheth ye corps of any man that is dead, and purgeth not himselfe, defileth the Tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel, because the sprinkling water was not sprinkled vpon him: he shall be vncleane, and his vncleannesse shall remaine still vpon him. 14 This is the law, Whe a man dieth in a tent, all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shalbe vncleane seuen dayes, 15 And all the vessels that bee open, which haue no couering fastened vpon them, shall be vncleane. 16 Also whosoeuer toucheth one that is slaine with a sworde in the fielde, or a dead person, or a bone of a dead man, or a graue, shall be vncleane seuen dayes. 17 Therfore for an vncleane person they shall take of the burnt ashes of the sinne offring, and pure water shalbe put thereto in a vessel. 18 And a cleane person shall take hyssope and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it vpon the tent, and vpon all the vessels, and on the persons that were therein, and vpon him that touched ye bone, or the slayne, or the dead, or the graue. 19 And the cleane person shall sprinkle vpon the vncleane the third day, and the seuenth day, and hee shall purifie him selfe the seuenth day, and wash his clothes, and wash himself in water, and shalbe cleane at euen. 20 But the man that is vncleane and purifieth not himselfe, that person shalbe cut off from among the Congregation, because hee hath defiled the Sanctuarie of the Lord: and the sprinkling water hath not bene sprinkled vpon him: therefore shall he be vncleane. 21 And it shalbe a perpetual lawe vnto them, that he that sprinkleth the sprinkling water, shall wash his clothes: also hee that toucheth the sprinkling water, shalbe vncleane vntill euen. 22 And whatsoeuer the vncleane person toucheth, shall be vncleane: and the person that toucheth him, shalbe vncleane vntill the euen.