Num 19 | EE | STEP | The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

Numbers 19

1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 2 ‘This is one rule in the LORD‘s law that I am telling to you: Tell the Israelites that they must bring to you a young red cow. It must not have anything wrong with it. And nobody must have put a yoke on it. 3 They must take it outside the camp. They must kill it and they must give it to Eleazar the priest. 4 Eleazar must take some of the blood from the cow. He must splash it 7 times in front of the Tent of Meeting. 5 Then the people must burn the whole cow while Eleazar is watching. They must burn its body with the skin, meat, blood and everything inside its body. 6 He must take some wood, some plants and some red wool. He must throw them on the fire. 7 Then priest must wash his clothes and he must bathe his body with water. After that, he can come into the camp but he will not be clean until the evening. 8 And the man who burns it must wash his clothes in water. And he must bathe his body in water. And he will not be clean until the evening.

9 Then a man who is clean must pick up all the ashes of the cow. And he must put them outside the camp in a clean place. And all the Israelites must keep them. You must mix them with water to make special water. It will be water for someone who is not clean to make them holy again. It is water to remove sin. 10 The man who picks up the ashes must wash himself and his clothes. He will not be clean until evening. This rule is for the Israelites and for all the people who are living with them.

11 Any person who touches a dead body will not be clean for 7 days. 12 He must wash himself on day 3 and day on 7. Then he will be clean. If he does not wash himself on day 3 and on day 7, he will not be clean. 13 A person might touch the body of a person who has died. If he does not make himself clean, he has made the LORD‘s Tent of Meeting not clean. You must make that person separate from the Israelites. Because the special water did not fall on him, he will not be clean. He will still be like a dirty person.

14 This is the rule when a person dies in a tent. Any person who is in the tent will not be clean for 7 days. 15 Any pot in the tent that does not have a lid will not be clean.

16 Also, someone might have killed a person with a sword out in the country. Or a person may have died because he was old or ill. Anyone who touches that dead body in the country or a human bone will not be clean for 7 days. Or someone may touch a place where people have buried a dead body. That person will not be clean for 7 days.

17 Then for the person who is not clean, you must take some of the ashes of the young red cow. That is the cow to make people clean. You must put these ashes into a pot and you must mix them with water from a river. 18 Then a person who is clean must take hyssop. He must put it into the water. Then he must use it to throw the water on the tent and on everything that is in it. And he must throw the water on all the people who have been there. And he must throw it on the person who touched the bone or the dead body. Or he must throw it on the person who touched the grave. 19 And the clean person must throw the water on the person who is not clean on the 3rd day too. And he must do it on day 7 too. On day 7 he will make the person clean. And then the person who had not been clean must wash his clothes. And he must bathe himself in water. In the evening, that person will become clean. 20 The person who is not clean might not wash himself and his clothes. If he does not do it, you must make that person separate from the people. That is because he has made the LORD‘s Holy Tent like something not clean. Because the priest did not splash holy water on him he will not be clean. 21 This rule is for now and for always. The man who splashes the holy water must wash his clothes. Any person who touches the holy water will not be clean until evening. 22 A person who is not clean must not touch anything. Anything that he touches will not be clean until evening.’