1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, 2 “This is a statute, a law which I am commanding you: Say to the people of Israel that they must bring to you a red heifer without flaw or blemish, and which has never carried a yoke. 3 Give the heifer to Eleazar the priest. He must bring it outside the camp, and someone must kill it in front of him. 4 Eleazar the priest must take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. 5 Another priest must burn the heifer in his sight. He must burn its hide, flesh, and its blood with its dung. 6 The priest must take cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet wool, and throw it all into the middle of the burning heifer. 7 Then he must wash his clothes and bathe in water. Then he may come into the camp, where he will remain unclean until the evening. 8 The one who has burned the heifer must wash his clothes in water and bathe in water. He will remain unclean until the evening. 9 Someone who is clean must gather up the heifer's ashes and put them outside the camp in a clean place. These ashes must be kept for the community of the people of Israel. They will mix the ashes with water for purification from sin, since the ashes were from a sin offering. 10 The one who gathered the heifer's ashes must wash his clothes. He will remain unclean until the evening. This will be a permanent law for the people of Israel and the foreigners who stay with them. 11 Whoever touches the dead body of any man will be unclean for seven days. 12 Such a person must purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself the third day, then he will not be clean on the seventh day. 13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself—this person defiles Yahweh's tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him. He will remain unclean; his uncleanness will remain on him. 14 This is the law for when someone dies in a tent. Everyone who goes into the tent and everyone who is already in the tent will be unclean for seven days. 15 Every open container with no cover becomes unclean. 16 Similarly, anyone outside a tent who touches someone who has been killed with a sword, any other dead body, a human bone, or a grave—that person will be unclean for seven days. 17 Do this for the unclean person: Take some ashes from the burnt sin offering and mix them in a jar with fresh water. 18 Someone who is clean must then take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the containers inside the tent, on the persons who were there, and on anyone who touched the bone, the one who was killed, the one who died, or the grave. 19 On the third day and on the seventh day, the clean person must sprinkle the unclean person. On the seventh day the unclean person must purify himself. He must wash his clothes and bathe in water. At evening he will become clean. 20 But anyone who remains unclean, who refuses to purify himself—that person will be cut off from the community, because he has defiled Yahweh's sanctuary. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he remains unclean. 21 This will be an ongoing law concerning these situations. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity must wash his clothes. The one who touches the water for impurity will become unclean until evening. 22 Whatever the unclean person touches will become unclean. The person who touches it will become unclean until evening.”
Numbers · Unlocked Literal Bible
Numbers 19 Unlocked Literal Bible
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)