English Standard Version ESV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
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God spoke to Moses and Aaron:
2 "This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come.
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"This is the rule from the Revelation that God commands: Tell the People of Israel to get a red cow, a healthy specimen, ritually clean, that has never been in harness.
3 And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him.
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Present it to Eleazar the priest, then take it outside the camp and butcher it while he looks on.
4 And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
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Eleazar will take some of the blood on his finger and splash it seven times in the direction of the Tent of Meeting.
5 And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned.
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"Then under Eleazar's supervision burn the cow, the whole thing - hide, meat, blood, even its dung.
6 And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer.
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The priest then will take a stick of cedar, some sprigs of hyssop, and a piece of scarlet material and throw them on the burning cow.
7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening.
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Afterwards the priest must wash his clothes and bathe well with water. He can then come into the camp but he remains ritually unclean until evening.
8 The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening.
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The man who burns the cow must also wash his clothes and bathe with water. He also is unclean until evening.
9 And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering.
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"Then a man who is ritually clean will gather the ashes of the cow and place them in a ritually clean place outside the camp. The congregation of Israel will keep them to use in the Water-of-Cleansing, an Absolution-Offering.
10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.
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"The man who gathered up the ashes must scrub his clothes; he is ritually unclean until evening. This is to be a standing rule for both native-born Israelites and foreigners living among them.
11 "Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days.
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"Anyone who touches a dead body is ritually unclean for seven days.
12 He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean.
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He must purify himself with the Water-of-Cleansing on the third day; on the seventh day he will be clean. But if he doesn't follow the procedures for the third and seventh days, he won't be clean.
13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.
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Anyone who touches the dead body of anyone and doesn't get cleansed desecrates God's Dwelling and is to be excommunicated. For as long as the Water-of-Cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he remains ritually unclean.
14 "This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.
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"This is the rule for someone who dies in his tent: Anyone who enters the tent or is already in the tent is ritually unclean for seven days,
15 And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean.
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and every open container without a lid is unclean.
16 Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
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"Anyone out in the open field who touches a corpse, whether dead from violent or natural causes, or a human bone or a grave is unclean for seven days.
17 For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh water shall be added in a vessel.
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For this unclean person, take some ashes from the burned Absolution-Offering and add some fresh water to it in a bowl.
18 Then a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone, or the slain or the dead or the grave.
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Find a ritually clean man to dip a sprig of hyssop into the water and sprinkle the tent and all its furnishings, the persons who were in the tent, the one who touched the bones of the person who was killed or died a natural death, and whoever may have touched a grave.
19 And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean.
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Then he is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days. On the seventh day he is considered cleansed. The cleansed person must then scrub his clothes and take a bath; by evening he is clean.
20 "If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. Because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him, he is unclean.
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But if an unclean person does not go through these cleansing procedures, he must be excommunicated from the community; he has desecrated the Sanctuary of God. The Water-of-Cleansing has not been sprinkled on him and he is ritually unclean.
21 And it shall be a statute forever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.
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This is the standing rule for these cases. "The man who sprinkles the Water-of-Cleansing has to scrub his clothes; anyone else who touched the Water-of-Cleansing is also ritually unclean until evening.
22 And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening."
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"Anything the ritually unclean man touches becomes unclean, and the person who touches what he touched is unclean until evening."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.