The law of the sacrifice of the red cow, and the water of expiation.
19:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
19:2. This is the observance of the victim, which the Lord hath
ordained. Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee a
red cow of full age, in which there is no blemish, and which hath not
carried the yoke:
A red cow, etc... This red cow, offered in sacrifice for sin, and
consumed with fire without the camp, with the ashes of which, mingled
with water, the unclean were to be expiated and purified; was a figure
of the passion of Christ, by whose precious blood applied to our souls
in the holy sacraments, we are cleansed from our sins.
19:3. And you shall deliver her to Eleazar the priest, who shall bring
her forth without the camp, and shall immolate her in the sight of all:
19:4. And dipping his finger in her blood, shall sprinkle it over
against the door of the tabernacle seven times,
19:5. And shall burn her in the sight of all delivering up to the fire
her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, and her dung.
19:6. The priest shall also take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet
twice dyed, and cast it into the flame, with which the cow is consumed.
19:7. And then after washing his garments, and body, he shall enter into
the camp, and shall be unclean until the evening.
19:8. He also that hath burned her, shall wash his garments, and his
body, and shall be unclean until the evening.
19:9. And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the cow, and
shall pour them forth without the camp in a most clean place, that they
may be reserved for the multitude of the children of Israel, and for a
water of aspersion: because the cow was burnt for sin.
19:10. And when he that carried the ashes of the cow, hath washed his
garments, he shall be unclean until the evening. The children of Israel,
and the strangers that dwell among them, shall observe this for a holy
thing by a perpetual ordinance.
19:11. He that toucheth the corpse of a man, and is therefore unclean
seven days,
19:12. Shall be sprinkled with this water on the third day, and on the
seventh, and so shall be cleansed. If he were not sprinkled on the third
day, he cannot be cleansed on the seventh.
19:13. Every one that toucheth the corpse of a man, and is not sprinkled
with this mixture, shall profane the tabernacle of the Lord, and shall
perish out of Israel: because he was not sprinkled with the water of
expiation, he shall be unclean, and his uncleanness shall remain upon
him.
19:14. This is the law of a man that dieth in a tent: All that go into
his tent and all the vessels that are there, shall be unclean seven
days.
19:15. The vessel that hath no cover, nor binding over it, shall be
unclean.
19:16. If any man in the field touch the corpse of a man that was slain,
or that died of himself, or his bone, or his grave, he shall be unclean
seven days.
19:17. And they shall take of the ashes of the burning and of the sin
offering, and shall pour living waters upon them into a vessel.
19:18. And a man that is clean shall dip hyssop in them, and shall
sprinkle therewith all the tent, and all the furniture, and the men that
are defiled with touching any such thing:
19:19. And in this manner he that is clean shall purify the unclean on
the third and on the seventh day. And being expiated the seventh day, he
shall wash both himself and his garments, and be unclean until the
evening.
19:20. If any man be not expiated after this rite, his soul shall perish
out of the midst of the church: because he hath profaned the sanctuary
of the Lord, and was not sprinkled with the water of purification.
19:21. This precept shall be an ordinance for ever. He also that
sprinkled the water, shall wash his garments. Every one that shall touch
the waters of expiation, shall be unclean until the evening.
19:22. Whatsoever a person toucheth who is unclean, he shall make it
unclean: and the person that toucheth any of these things, shall be
unclean until the evening.