1The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,2This is the statute of the instruction that the LORD has commanded, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, that they take for you a red heifer, unblemished, in which there is no blemish, and on which no yoke has come.3You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside the camp and slaughter her before him.4Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting.5He shall burn the heifer before his eyes; her skin, her flesh, and her blood with her refuse he shall burn.6The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn and throw them into the midst of the burning of the heifer.7The priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water; afterward he may enter the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.8The one who burns her shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water and shall be unclean until evening.9A clean man shall gather the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place; and it shall be for the congregation of the sons of Israel for keeping, for water of impurity, a sin offering.10The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be for the sons of Israel and for the sojourner who sojourns in their midst a statute forever.11Whoever touches a dead body of any human person 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 does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day he shall not be clean.13Anyone who touches a dead body of a human person who has died and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the LORD; that person shall be cut off from Israel, because the water of impurity was not sprinkled on him; he is unclean, and his uncleanness is still upon him.14This is the instruction: when a man dies in a tent, everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.15Every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean.16Anyone who touches on the open ground one slain by the sword, or a dead body, or a human bone, or a grave shall be unclean seven days.17For the unclean they shall take some of the dust of the burning of the sin offering and shall put living water on it in a vessel.18A clean man shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the vessels and on the persons who are there and on anyone who has touched a bone or a slain person or a dead body or a grave.19The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be clean at evening.20If a man becomes unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD; the water of impurity was not sprinkled on him; he is unclean.21This shall be a statute forever for them: the one who sprinkles the water of impurity shall wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of impurity shall be unclean until evening.22Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches him shall be unclean until evening.