The Holy Bible

The Water of Cleansing

Lord said to Moses and Aaron,  2  “This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and on which a yoke has never been placed.  3  Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.  4  Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.  5  Then the heifer is to be burned in his sight—its skin, flesh, blood, and offal must all be burned.  6  The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the fire where the heifer is burning.  7  After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. Then he may come back into the camp, but he will remain unclean until evening.  8  The man who burns the heifer must also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and he too will remain unclean until evening.

• The priests were commanded to sacrifice a red heifer, and use its ashes in the water of cleansing for the rite of purification from sin.

Bible illustration © Sweet Publishing

9 “A man who is clean is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a ceremonially clean place. The ashes are to be kept for the community of the Israelites for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purifying from sin.  10  The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he will remain unclean until evening. This will be a perpetual ordinance for the Israelites and for the foreigner who lives among them.

11  “Whoever touches the dead body of any person will be unclean for seven days.  12  He must purify himself with water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean.  13  Whoever touches the body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing was not sprinkled on him, he will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

14  “This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent, and anyone who is already in the tent will be unclean for seven days,  15  and any open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.

16  “Anyone in the open field who touches a person who has been killed with a sword or has died, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

17  “For the unclean person, they are to take some of the ashes of the burnt purification offering, put them into a jar, and pour fresh water over them.  18  Then a person who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent, all the furnishings, and the people who were there. He is to also sprinkle the person who touched a human bone, a grave, a dead body, or a person who has died.

19  “The person who is clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day the unclean person is to be purified, then he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be clean by evening.  20  But a person who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person must be cut off from the community, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, and he is unclean.  21  This is a perpetual statue for them.

“The person who sprinkles the water for cleansing must also wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water for cleansing will be unclean until evening.  22  Anything the unclean person touches will become unclean; and the person who touches it will be unclean until evening’.”