The Fourth Book of Moses: Numbers

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- Chapter 19 -

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

“This is the ritual that the Lord has appointed for a victim. Instruct the sons of Israel, so that they may bring to you a red cow of full maturity, in which there is no blemish, and which has not carried a yoke.(a)

And you shall deliver it to Eleazar the priest, who, having led it out beyond the camp, shall immolate it in the sight of all.

And dipping his finger in its blood, he shall sprinkle it seven times, opposite the door of the tabernacle.

And he shall burn it, while all are watching, delivering into the flame, not only its skin and flesh, but also the blood and dung.

Likewise, cedar wood, and hyssop, and twice-dyed scarlet he shall cast into the flame, by which the cow is consumed.

And then finally, having washed his garments and his body, he shall enter into the camp, and he shall be deeply stained until evening.(b)

Then he also who had burned it shall wash his garments and his body, and he shall be unclean until evening.

Then a clean man shall gather the ashes of the cow, and he shall pour them out beyond the camp, in a very pure place, so that they may be preserved for the multitude of the sons of Israel, and for the water of aspersion, because the cow was burned for sin.

And when he who had carried the ashes of the cow will have washed his garments, he shall be unclean until evening. The sons of Israel, and the newcomers who live among them, shall have this as a holy and perpetual right.

Purification of the Unclean

Whoever touches the corpse of a man, and is, because of this, unclean for seven days,

shall be sprinkled from this water on the third and seventh days, and so shall he be cleansed. But if he was not sprinkled on the third day, he is not able to be cleansed on the seventh.

Anyone who will have touched the dead body of a human life, and who has not been sprinkled with this mixture, pollutes the tabernacle of the Lord, and he shall perish out of Israel. For not having been sprinkled with the water of expiation, he shall be unclean, and his filth shall remain upon him.

This is the law of a man who dies in a tent. All who enter into his tent, and all the vessels which are there, shall be polluted for seven days.

The vessel that has no cover or binding over it shall be unclean.

If anyone in the field will have touched the corpse of a man, who was killed or who died on his own, or his bone, or his grave, he shall be unclean for seven days.(c)

And they shall take some of the ashes from the burning and the sin offering, and they shall pour living waters over them into a vessel.

And into it a man who is clean shall dip hyssop, and he shall sprinkle from it the entire tent, and all its articles, and the men who were polluted by means of contact.

And so, in this manner, what is clean shall purify what is unclean, on the third and seventh days. And having been expiated on the seventh day, he shall wash both himself and his garments, and he shall be unclean until evening.

If anyone has not been expiated by this ritual, his soul shall perish from the midst of the Church. For he has polluted the Sanctuary of the Lord, and he has not been sprinkled with purifying waters.(d)

This precept shall be an everlasting ordinance. Likewise, the one who has sprinkled the waters shall wash his garments. All who will have touched the waters of expiation shall be unclean until evening.

Whatever has been touched by something unclean will itself be made unclean. And the soul who touches any of these things shall become unclean until evening.”

Footnotes

(a)19:2 A red cow, etc:This red cow, offered in sacrifice for sin, and consumed with fire without the camp, with the ashes of which, mingled with water, the unclean were to be expiated and purified; was a figure of the passion of Christ, by whose precious blood applied to our souls in the holy sacraments, we are cleansed from our sins.(Challoner)

(b)19:7 The word ‘commaculatusque’ is more intense than merely the word ‘macula’ (blemish).(Conte)

(c)19:16 Death is a result of original sin, which is why dead things render a person ritually impure, because the fall from grace was a serious sin resulting in death.(Conte)

(d)19:20 In this ritual is a great figure of the Sacrament of Baptism and its necessity for any soul to be saved. The use of the word Church favors the spiritual meaning of this verse; this is an example of the Christological translation of the Old Testament.(Conte)

The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

“This is the statute of the law which the LORD 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.

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.

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.

One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her meat, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn.

The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the middle of the burning of the heifer.

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.

He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.

“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.

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.

Purification of the Unclean

“He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

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.

Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn’t purify himself, defiles the LORD’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.

“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.

Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean.

“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.

“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.

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.

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.

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 the LORD. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean.

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.

“Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.”