Numbers 19 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron and said,

"This is a requirement of the instruction that Yahweh has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a completely red cow without any defect, one that has no blemish, and that has never worn a yoke.

Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will take it outside the camp. Then it will be slaughtered in front of him.

Eleazar the priest will take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the meeting tent.

Then the cow will be burned while he watches—its hide, its meat, its blood, and its dung will all be burned.

The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire where the cow is burning.

Then the priest will wash his clothes, bathe himself in water, and after that he may come back into the camp. But the priest will remain contaminated until evening.

The one who burns the cow must also wash his clothes in water and bathe himself in water, and he will remain contaminated until evening.

Then a man who is not contaminated will gather up the ashes of the cow and store them outside the camp in a ritually clean place. They will be kept for the Israelite community to use in the water of purification. This is a ritual for dealing with contamination from failure.

The one who gathers the cow's ashes must wash his clothes and will remain contaminated until evening. This will be a permanent rule for both the Israelites and any foreigner living among them.

"Anyone who touches a dead body of any person will be contaminated for seven days.

That person must go through purification with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then they will be clean. But if they don't go through purification on the third day and the seventh day, they won't become clean.

Anyone who touches a dead body — the body of any person who has died — and does not go through purification has made Yahweh's dwelling place contaminated. That person must be cut off from Israel, because the water of purification was not sprinkled on them. They remain contaminated; their contamination is still on them.

"This is the instruction for when someone dies in a tent: everyone who enters the tent and everyone who is already in the tent will be contaminated for seven days.

And every open container—any pot that doesn't have a lid fastened on it—is contaminated.

Anyone out in the open who touches someone killed by a sword, or a dead body, or a human bone, or a grave, will be contaminated for seven days.

For the contaminated person, they will take some of the ashes from the burned purification offering and put fresh running water over them in a container.

Then a person who is clean will take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the containers, on the people who were there, and on whoever touched the bone, the body, the person who was killed, or the grave.

The clean person will sprinkle the contaminated person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, the contaminated person will go through the final stage of purification, wash their clothes, bathe in water, and by evening they will be clean.

"But if anyone becomes contaminated and does not go through purification, that person must be cut off from the community, because they have made Yahweh's sacred place contaminated. The water of purification was not sprinkled on them — they are contaminated.

This will be a permanent rule for them. The one who sprinkles the water of purification must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of purification will be contaminated until evening.

Anything a contaminated person touches becomes contaminated, and anyone who touches that person will be contaminated until evening."