2"This is the rule of the law which the LORD has commanded. Say to the children of Israel that they bring you a red heifer without spot, with no blemish in her, and one that has never worn a yoke."
3You shall give her to Eleazar the priest. He shall bring her outside the camp, and someone shall kill her in front of him.
4Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger. He shall sprinkle some of her blood seven times, straight toward the front of the tent of meeting.
5Someone shall burn the heifer while he watches. Her skin, her flesh, her blood, and her dung shall all be burned.
6The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet thread, and throw them into the middle of the burning heifer.
7Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. After that he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until the evening.
8The man who burns her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and he shall be unclean until the evening.
9A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer. He shall put them outside the camp in a clean place. They shall be kept for the community of the children of Israel, to make the water of separation. It is a purification for sin.
10The man who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and he shall be unclean until the evening. This shall be a law for ever for the children of Israel and for the stranger who lives among them.
11Anyone who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean for seven days.
12He shall purify himself with the water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day, then on the seventh day he shall not be clean.
13Anyone who touches the dead body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, makes the tent of the LORD unclean. That person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water of separation was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.
14This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everything in the tent, shall be unclean for seven days.
15And every open container that has no lid tied on it is unclean.
16Anyone who touches a man killed with a sword out in the open fields, or a dead body, or a man's bone, or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.
17For the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and put running water on them in a container.
18A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water. He shall sprinkle it on the tent, on all the containers, and on the people who were there. He shall also sprinkle it on the one who touched a bone, or a man who was killed, or a dead body, or a grave.
19The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water. In the evening he shall be clean.
20But if a man is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the community, because he has made the sanctuary of the LORD unclean. The water of separation has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean.
21This shall be a lasting law for them. The man who sprinkles the water of separation shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water of separation shall be unclean until evening.
22"Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches that shall be unclean until evening."