1Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
2“This is the rule of the law that Yahweh has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without any blemish or defect, which has never been yoked.
3You must give her to Eleazar the priest. He will take her outside the camp, and someone will slaughter her in his presence.
4Eleazar the priest will take some of her blood with his finger and sprinkle her blood seven times towards the front of the Tent of Meeting.
5Someone will burn the heifer in his sight. Its hide, meat, blood, and dung must all be burned.
6The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet string, and throw them into the middle of the burning cow.
7Then the priest will wash his clothes and bathe himself in water. After that, he can come back into the camp, but he will remain unclean until evening.
8The person who burns the cow must also wash his clothes with water and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening.
9“A clean man will gather the ashes of the cow and put them in a clean place outside the camp. These ashes will be kept for the community of Israel to be mixed with water for purification. This is an offering for sin.
10The person who gathers the ashes of the cow must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening. This is a permanent rule for the people of Israel and for any foreigner living among them.
11“Anyone who touches the dead body of a person will be unclean for seven days.
12They must purify themselves with water on the third day, and again on the seventh day, to become clean. But if they don’t purify themselves on the third day, they will not be clean on the seventh day.
13Anyone who touches a dead person, the body of someone who has died, and does not purify themselves, makes Yahweh’s dwelling place unclean. That person will be removed from Israel. Because the purification water was not sprinkled on them, they remain unclean. Their uncleanness is still on them.
14“This is the rule when someone dies in a tent: everyone who enters the tent and everyone who is already in the tent will be unclean for seven days.
15Any open container that doesn't have a lid securely fastened on it is unclean.
16“Anyone in an open field who touches someone killed by a sword, or a dead body, or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
17“For those who are unclean, some of the ashes from the burnt sin offering will be taken, and fresh spring water will be poured into a container.
18A clean person will take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the containers, on the people who were there, and on anyone who touched a bone, a dead body, or a grave.
19The clean person will sprinkle the water on the unclean person on the third day and again on the seventh day. On the seventh day, the unclean person will be purified. They must wash their clothes and bathe themselves in water, and they will be clean by evening.
20But if a person is unclean and does not purify themselves, they will be cut off from the community, because they have made Yahweh’s sanctuary unclean. The purification water was not sprinkled on them. They are unclean.
21This will be a lasting rule for them. The person who sprinkles the purification water must wash their clothes, and anyone who touches the purification water will be unclean until evening.
22“Anything that an unclean person touches will become unclean, and anyone who touches something unclean will be unclean until evening.”