Numbers 19 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

The Water of Purification

Num 19:1The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

Num 19:2“Here is another legal requirement commanded by the LORD: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer, a perfect animal that has no defects and has never been yoked to a plow.

Num 19:3

Num 19:3Give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

Num 19:4

Num 19:4Eleazar will take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tabernacle.[fn]

Num 19:5

Num 19:5As Eleazar watches, the heifer must be burned—its hide, meat, blood, and dung.

Num 19:6

Num 19:6Eleazar the priest must then take a stick of cedar,[fn] a hyssop branch, and some scarlet yarn and throw them into the fire where the heifer is burning.

Num 19:7

Num 19:7“Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water. Afterward he may return to the camp, though he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening.

Num 19:8

Num 19:8The man who burns the animal must also wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he, too, will remain unclean until evening.

Num 19:9

Num 19:9Then someone who is ceremonially clean will gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them in a purified place outside the camp. They will be kept there for the community of Israel to use in the water for the purification ceremony. This ceremony is performed for the removal of sin.

Num 19:10

Num 19:10The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening. This is a permanent law for the people of Israel and any foreigners who live among them.

Num 19:11

Num 19:11“All those who touch a dead human body will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.

Num 19:12

Num 19:12They must purify themselves on the third and seventh days with the water of purification; then they will be purified. But if they do not do this on the third and seventh days, they will continue to be unclean even after the seventh day.

Num 19:13

Num 19:13All those who touch a dead body and do not purify themselves in the proper way defile the LORD’s Tabernacle, and they will be cut off from the community of Israel. Since the water of purification was not sprinkled on them, their defilement continues.

Num 19:14

Num 19:14“This is the ritual law that applies when someone dies inside a tent: All those who enter that tent and those who were inside when the death occurred will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.

Num 19:15

Num 19:15Any open container in the tent that was not covered with a lid is also defiled.

Num 19:16

Num 19:16And if someone in an open field touches the corpse of someone who was killed with a sword or who died a natural death, or if someone touches a human bone or a grave, that person will be defiled for seven days.

Num 19:17

Num 19:17“To remove the defilement, put some of the ashes from the burnt purification offering in a jar, and pour fresh water over them.

Num 19:18

Num 19:18Then someone who is ceremonially clean must take a hyssop branch and dip it into the water. That person must sprinkle the water on the tent, on all the furnishings in the tent, and on the people who were in the tent; also on the person who touched a human bone, or touched someone who was killed or who died naturally, or touched a grave.

Num 19:19

Num 19:19On the third and seventh days the person who is ceremonially clean must sprinkle the water on those who are defiled. Then on the seventh day the people being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe themselves, and that evening they will be cleansed of their defilement.

Num 19:20

Num 19:20“But those who become defiled and do not purify themselves will be cut off from the community, for they have defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. Since the water of purification has not been sprinkled on them, they remain defiled.

Num 19:21

Num 19:21This is a permanent law for the people. Those who sprinkle the water of purification must afterward wash their clothes, and anyone who then touches the water used for purification will remain defiled until evening.

Num 19:22

Num 19:22Anything and anyone that a defiled person touches will be ceremonially unclean until evening.”

See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NLT Footnotes

(19:4)

Hebrew the Tent of Meeting.

(19:6)

Or juniper.

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Numbers Chapter 19 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Numbers 19 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

NLT Footnotes

Numbers Chapter 19 — Additional Translations:

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