Numbers 19 Summary

The LORD commands Moses and Aaron that a red heifer without blemish and never yoked be slaughtered outside the camp by Eleazar the priest, whose blood is sprinkled seven times before the tabernacle. The heifer is then burned entirely along with cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and its ashes are gathered and stored outside the camp to be mixed with running water as a "water of separation" for purification from sin. The chapter then details the laws of corpse-uncleanness: anyone who touches a dead body, a bone, a grave, or is present in a tent where someone has died becomes unclean for seven days and must be sprinkled with the water of separation on the third and seventh days to be cleansed. Those who remain unclean and neglect the prescribed purification defile the tabernacle and are to be cut off from the congregation; furthermore, even those who perform or handle the purification ritual incur a lesser, temporary uncleanness until evening.