Numbers 19
Big idea: In a generation sentenced to die in the wilderness, death itself becomes the commonest source of uncleanness — and there are forty years of funerals ahead. So God provides a remedy that can be prepared once and used for years: a red heifer without defect, never yoked, killed outside the camp, burned whole with cedar, hyssop and scarlet, and its ashes stored in a clean place. Mixed with running water they become the water for cleansing, sprinkled on the third and seventh day on anyone who has touched a corpse, a grave, a bone, or been in a tent where someone died. And the strangest feature of the rite is stated plainly and never explained: everyone who prepares it — the priest, the burner, the gatherer — becomes unclean until evening. The thing that cleanses defiles those who make it.
Chapter 19 provides for a camp surrounded by death. Chapter 20 opens with the death of Miriam, and Israel out of water again.
19:1–10 — The red heifer
Bring a red heifer without spot, in which is no defect, which was never yoked. Give her to Eleazar the priest; she is brought outside the camp and killed before his face. He takes some of her blood with his finger and sprinkles it toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. She is burned in his sight — skin, meat, blood and dung — and cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet are cast into the middle of the burning. Then the priest washes his clothes and bathes, and is unclean until evening; so is the one who burns her. A clean man gathers up the ashes and lays them outside the camp in a clean place, kept for the congregation for use in water for cleansing impurity — it is a sin offering. And the gatherer too washes his clothes and is unclean until evening. A statute forever for Israel and for the foreigner among them.
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded. Tell the children of Israel to bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no defect, and which was never yoked. 3 You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face. 4 Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. 5 One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her meat, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn. 6 The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the middle of the burning of the heifer. 7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening. 8 He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening. 9 “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for use in water for cleansing impurity. It is a sin offering. 10 He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening. It shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them, for a statute forever.
19:11–22 — The water for impurity
Whoever touches the dead body of any man is unclean seven days; he purifies himself with the water on the third day and the seventh, and is clean — but if he does not purify himself on the third day, he is not clean on the seventh. Whoever touches a dead person and doesn't purify himself defiles Yahweh's tabernacle and is cut off. When a man dies in a tent, everyone who comes in and everyone in it is unclean seven days, and every open vessel with no covering bound on it is unclean. In the open field, touching one slain with a sword, a dead body, a bone or a grave brings seven days' uncleanness. For the unclean, take some of the ashes and pour running water on them in a vessel; a clean person takes hyssop, dips it, and sprinkles the tent, the vessels, the persons there, and whoever touched the bone, the slain, the dead or the grave — on the third day and the seventh. Then he washes his clothes and bathes and is clean at evening. Whoever will not purify himself is cut off, for he has defiled the sanctuary. And the one who sprinkles the water is himself unclean until evening.
11 “He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall purify himself with water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he doesn’t purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. 13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn’t purify himself, defiles Yahweh’s tabernacle; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet on him. 14 “This is the law 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. 15 Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean. 16 “Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. 17 “For the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured on them in a vessel. 18 A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave. 19 The clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall purify him. He shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening. 20 But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean. 21 It shall be a perpetual statute to them. He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. 22 “Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).