1. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
2. “These are the teachings that the Lord commanded. Tell the Israelites to get a young red cow that does not have anything wrong with it and that has never been worked.
3. Give the cow to Eleazar the priest; he will take it outside the camp and kill it.
4. Then Eleazar the priest must put some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Meeting Tent.
5. The whole cow must be burned while he watches; the skin, the meat, the blood, and the intestines must all be burned.
6. Then the priest must take a cedar stick, a hyssop branch, and a red string and throw them onto the burning cow.
7. After the priest has washed himself and his clothes with water, he may come back into the camp, but he will be unclean until evening.
8. The man who burns the cow must wash himself and his clothes in water; he will be unclean until evening.
9. “Then someone who is clean will collect the ashes from the cow and put them in a clean place outside the camp. The Israelites will keep these ashes to use in the cleansing water, in a special ceremony to cleanse away sin.
10. The man who collected the cow’s ashes must wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This is a lasting rule for the Israelites and for the foreigners among them.
11. “Those who touch a dead person’s body will be unclean for seven days.
12. They must wash themselves with the cleansing water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not wash themselves on the third day and the seventh day, they cannot be clean.