Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "I have commanded this ordinance for you. Speak to the Israelites so they bring a red heifer without any defect from their flocks, one that has never been yoked.

You shall give her to Eleazar the priest outside the camp. He will take her there and have someone kill her in his presence. Eleazar will then take some of her blood with his finger and sprinkle it directly before the tabernacle seven times. Then, he shall burn the heifer completely, including its skin, flesh, blood, and dung.

The priest shall also take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast them into the midst of the burning heifer. He must then wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, remaining unclean until evening before returning to the camp.

The one who burns the heifer must also wash his clothes in water and bathe himself in water, remaining unclean until evening. A clean person will gather up the ashes of the heifer and place them in a clean spot outside the camp. Those ashes will serve as a water of separation for purification from sin for the Israelites to use.

The one gathering the ashes must wash his clothes and remain unclean until evening, establishing this ordinance as a perpetual statute for the Israelites and any stranger living among them. If anyone touches a dead body, they will be considered unclean for seven days. They must purify themselves with water on the third day, and then on the seventh day, they will be clean if they followed the purification process correctly.

However, if someone does not purify themselves on the third day, they will remain unclean until the seventh day. Anyone who touches a dead body without following this purification process defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person is to be cut off from Israel because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon them, and their uncleanness remains.

When someone dies in a tent, everyone entering it and everything within will become unclean for seven days. Any open vessel without a covering that came into contact with the deceased or anything they touched becomes unclean. Anyone who touches a slain person, dead body, human bone, or grave becomes unclean for seven days.

For an unclean person, they must take some of the ashes from the burnt heifer and mix them with running water in a vessel. A clean person shall then dip hyssop into this mixture and sprinkle it on any tent, its contents, everyone present there, or anyone who touched a dead body, bone, slain person, or grave.

The clean person will sprinkle this upon the unclean individual on the third day and seventh day. On the seventh day, they will purify themselves by washing their clothes, bathing in water, and being considered clean at evening. But if an unclean person does not follow this process of purification, they will be cut off from the community because they defiled the sanctuary of the Lord.

The water of separation has not been sprinkled upon them. It is a perpetual ordinance for anyone who handles this water to wash their clothes and remain unclean until evening. Anything an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and any soul that comes into contact with it will be considered unclean until evening.