The Tanakh · JPS 1917 Translation

Numbers 19

Jewish Publication Society 1917 · Torah

Numbers chapter 19 — part of the Torah in the Jewish Bible. In the classic JPS 1917 translation it opens: “And HaShem spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying:” — the complete text of all 22 verses is below, free to read online.

1And HaShem spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying:

2This is the statute of the law which HaShem hath commanded, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer, faultless, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.

3And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, and she shall be brought forth without the camp, and she shall be slain before his face.

4And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

5And the heifer shall be burnt in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall be burnt.

6And the priest shall take cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

7Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even.

8And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.

9And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of sprinkling; it is a purification from sin.

10And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even; and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.

11He that toucheth the dead, even any man's dead body, shall be unclean seven days;

12the same shall purify himself therewith on the third day and on the seventh day, and he shall be clean; but if he purify not himself the third day and the seventh day, he shall not be clean.

13Whosoever toucheth the dead, even the body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself--he hath defiled the tabernacle of HaShem--that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water of sprinkling was not dashed against him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.

14This is the law: when a man dieth in a tent, every one that cometh into the tent, and every thing that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.

15And every open vessel, which hath no covering close-bound upon it, is unclean.

16And whosoever in the open field toucheth one that is slain with a sword, or one that dieth of himself, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

17And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the purification from sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel.

18And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave.

19And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him; and he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.

20But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of HaShem; the water of sprinkling hath not been dashed against him: he is unclean.

21And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them; and he that sprinkleth the water of sprinkling shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of sprinkling shall be unclean until even.

22And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth him shall be unclean until even.

22 verses · JPS 1917 (public domain)

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