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ADONAI said to Moshe and Aharon,
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"This is the regulation from the Torah which ADONAI has commanded. Tell the people of Isra'el to bring you a young red female cow without fault or defect and which has never borne a yoke.
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You are to give it to El'azar the cohen; it is to be brought outside the camp and slaughtered in front of him.
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El'azar the cohen is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle this blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
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The heifer is to be burned to ashes before his eyes -its skin, meat, blood and dung is to be burned to ashes.
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The cohen is to take cedar-wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the heifer as it is burning up.
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Then the cohen is to wash his clothes and himself in water, after which he may re-enter the camp; but the cohen will remain unclean until evening.
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The person who burned up the heifer is to wash his clothes and himself in water, but he will remain unclean until evening.
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A man who is clean is to collect the ashes of the heifer and store them outside the camp in a clean place. They are to be kept for the community of the people of Isra'el to prepare water for purification from sin.
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The one who collected the ashes of the heifer is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. For the people of Isra'el and for the foreigner staying with them this will be a permanent regulation.
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"Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose dead body it is, will be unclean for seven days.