1 And YHWH speaks to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 “This [is] a statute of the law which YHWH has commanded, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, and they bring a red cow to you, a perfect one, in which there is no blemish, on which no yoke has gone up; 3 and you have given it to Eleazar the priest, and he has brought it out to the outside of the camp, and has slaughtered it before him. 4 And Eleazar the priest has taken of its blood with his finger, and has sprinkled [it] toward the front of the face of the Tent of Meeting from its blood seven times; 5 and [one] has burned the cow before his eyes; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, besides her dung, he burns; 6 and the priest has taken cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and has cast [them] into the midst of the burning of the cow; 7 and the priest has washed his garments, and has bathed his flesh with water, and afterward comes into the camp, and the priest is unclean until the evening; 8 and he who is burning it washes his garments with water, and has bathed his flesh with water, and is unclean until the evening. 9 And a clean man has gathered the ashes of the cow, and has placed [them] at the outside of the camp in a clean place, and it has become a charge for the congregation of the sons of Israel for waters of separation—it [is for] sin; 10 and he who is gathering the ashes of the heifer has washed his garments and is unclean until the evening; and it has been to the sons of Israel and to the sojourner who is sojourning in their midst for a continuous statute. 11 He who is coming against the dead body of any man is unclean [for] seven days; 12 he cleanses himself for it on the third day and on the seventh day, [and] he is clean; and if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he is not clean. 13 Anyone who is coming against the dead, against the body of man who dies, and does not cleanse himself, he has defiled the Dwelling Place of YHWH, and that person has been cut off from Israel, for water of separation is not sprinkled on him; he is unclean; his uncleanness [is] still on him. 14 This [is] the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who is coming into the tent and all that [is] in the tent are unclean [for] seven days; 15 and every open vessel which has no covering of thread on it is unclean. 16 And everyone on the face of the field who comes against the pierced of a sword, or against the dead, or against a bone of man, or against a grave, is unclean [for] seven days; 17 and for the unclean person they have taken from the ashes of the burning of the [cow], and he has put running water over it into a vessel; 18 and a clean person has taken hyssop, and has dipped [it] in water, and has sprinkled [it] on the tent, and on all the vessels, and on the persons who have been there, and on him who is coming against a bone, or against one pierced, or against the dead, or against a grave. 19 And the clean has sprinkled [it] on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day, and has cleansed him on the seventh day, and he has washed his garments, and has bathed with water, and has been clean in the evening. 20 And the man who is unclean and does not cleanse himself, indeed, that person has been cut off from the midst of the assembly; for he has defiled the sanctuary of YHWH; water of separation is not sprinkled on him; he [is] unclean. 21 And it has been for a continuous statute to them, that he who is sprinkling the water of separation washes his garments, and he who is coming against the water of separation is unclean until the evening, 22 and all against which the unclean person comes is unclean, and the person who is coming against [it] is unclean until the evening.”
Numbers · Literal Standard Version
Numbers 19 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Cross references (19)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 2 Deuteronomy 21:3; Leviticus 22:20–25; 1 Samuel 6:7; 1 Peter 1:19; Philippians 2:6–8
- 3 Leviticus 4:12; Leviticus 4:21; Hebrews 13:11–13; Leviticus 16:27; Leviticus 24:14
- 4 Leviticus 16:14; Leviticus 4:17; Leviticus 4:6; Leviticus 16:19; Hebrews 9:13–14
- 5 Exodus 29:14; Leviticus 4:11–12; Isaiah 53:10; Psalm 22:14; Leviticus 4:21
- 6 Leviticus 14:4; Leviticus 14:49; Leviticus 14:6; Psalm 51:7; Hebrews 9:19–23
- 7 Leviticus 11:25; Leviticus 15:5; Leviticus 16:26–28; Numbers 19:19; Numbers 19:8
- 9 Hebrews 9:13; Numbers 19:13; Numbers 19:20–21; Numbers 9:13; Hebrews 7:26
- 10 Exodus 12:49; Numbers 15:15–16; Numbers 19:19; Romans 3:29–30; Numbers 19:7–8
- 11 Numbers 5:2; Numbers 31:19; Leviticus 21:1; Numbers 9:6; Numbers 19:16
- 12 Numbers 31:19; Psalm 51:7; Hosea 6:2; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Acts 15:9
- 13 Leviticus 15:31; Leviticus 22:3; Leviticus 7:20; Numbers 8:7; Numbers 19:9
- 15 Leviticus 11:32; Leviticus 14:36; Numbers 31:20
- 16 Numbers 19:11; Numbers 31:19; Matthew 23:27; Luke 11:44; Ezekiel 39:11–16
- 17 Numbers 19:9; John 7:38; Genesis 26:19; Song of Songs 4:15; John 4:10–11
- 18 Ezekiel 36:25–27; Hebrews 9:14; Numbers 19:9; Psalm 51:7; John 17:17
- 19 1 John 1:7; Hebrews 10:22; Ezekiel 36:25; Ephesians 5:25–27; Leviticus 14:9
- 20 Numbers 19:13; Genesis 17:14; Mark 16:16; Romans 2:4–5; 2 Peter 3:14
- 21 Hebrews 9:13–14; Hebrews 10:4; Leviticus 16:26–28; Hebrews 9:10; Leviticus 11:40
- 22 Haggai 2:13; Leviticus 15:5; Leviticus 7:19; Leviticus 5:2; Mark 7:21–23
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
In the law every one who toucheth a dead body was considered impure, but these are not dead.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 9 (1899)