1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 2 This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, Speak unto the sons of Israel that they bring thee a red heifer, perfect, in which there is no blemish, and upon which there has never been placed a yoke; 3 and ye shall give her unto Eleazar, the priest, that he may bring her forth outside the camp, and he shall cause her to be slain in his presence. 4 And Eleazar, the priest, shall take of her blood with his finger and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the testimony seven times; 5 and he shall cause the heifer to be burnt in his sight; her skin and her flesh and her blood with her dung shall he cause to burn. 6 Then the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. 7 Then 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 evening. 8 Likewise he that burns her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his flesh in water and shall be unclean until the evening. 9 And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up outside the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the sons of Israel for the water of separation; it is sin. 10 And he that gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening; and it shall be unto the sons of Israel and unto the stranger that sojourns among them for a perpetual statute.
11 He that touches the dead body of any human person shall be unclean seven days. 12 They shall remove the sin from themselves with that water on the third day, and on the seventh day they shall be clean; but if they do not remove the sin from themselves the third day, then the seventh day they shall not be clean. 13 Whoever touches the dead body of anyone that is dead and does not remove the sin has defiled the tabernacle of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean, and his uncleanness shall be upon him.
14 This is the law when anyone dies in a tent; all that come into the tent and all that are in the tent shall be unclean seven days. 15 And every open vessel which has no lid fastened upon it shall be unclean. 16 And whoever touches one that is slain with a sword in the open fields or a dead body or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. 17 And for the unclean person they shall take of the dust of the heifer that was burnt as sin and put living water over it in a vessel; 18 and a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it upon the tent and upon all the stuff and upon the persons that were there and upon the one that touched the bone or the one slain or the one dead or the grave. 19 And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and when he has removed the sin from them the seventh day, he shall then wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean in the evening.
20 But the man that shall be unclean and shall not cause the sin to be removed from himself, that person shall be cut off from among the congregation because he has defiled the tabernacle of the LORD; the water of separation has not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean. 21 And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, also he that sprinkles the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that touches the water of separation shall be unclean until evening. 22 And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person that touches it shall be unclean until evening.