Numbers 19: The red heifer and the water for impurity

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

In plain English: "This is the rule (or: decree) of the law that Yahweh has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer (a young cow) that is perfect (this Bible: without spot), with no defect, and that has never worn a yoke.

The Hebrew words: "A red heifer" is parah adummah. Parah is "a heifer", a young cow, and the dictionary gives adom as "rosy": a red or red-brown colour. "Without spot" is tamim, which the dictionary gives as "entire": whole, perfect. "Statute" is chuqqah, "an enactment", a fixed rule.

How it is translated: This Bible says "heifer" in 6 of the 22 verses that use parah, and "cow" or "cows" in 8, such as the two milk cows "on which there has come no yoke" in 1 Samuel 6:7. It says "statute" or a longer form in 85 of the 101 verses that use chuqqah.

Church tradition: Jewish teachers have long held up the red heifer as the clearest case of a law whose reason is not given, and the Mishnah, the old collection of Jewish teaching, gives it a whole section. Hebrews 9:13 speaks of "the ashes of a heifer" making people clean in the flesh, and many churches read it as pointing to Christ. Numbers 19 gives the rules and does not explain them.

In plain English: Give her to Eleazar the priest. He is to take her outside the camp, and she is to be killed in front of him.

In plain English: Eleazar the priest is to take some of her blood on his finger and sprinkle her blood seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.

In plain English: The heifer is to be burned while he watches: her skin, her meat, and her blood, with her dung, are to be burned.

In plain English: The priest is to take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet (something dyed crimson), and throw them into the middle of the fire where the heifer is burning.

Good to know: Cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet are the same three things used to cleanse a person healed of skin disease in Leviticus 14:4, where the water is also "running water" (14:5). "Scarlet" here is literally "scarlet of the worm", the crimson grub that the dye was made from.

In plain English: Then the priest is to wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. After that he may come into the camp, but the priest will be unclean until evening.

In plain English: The one who burns her is to wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and he will be unclean until evening.

In plain English: A man who is clean is to gather up the heifer's ashes and put them in a clean place outside the camp. They are to be kept for the community of the Israelites for the water for impurity (or: the water that takes impurity away). It is a sin offering (or: a purification offering).

The Hebrew words: "Water for cleansing impurity" is mei niddah, "water of niddah". The dictionary gives niddah as "properly, rejection; by implication, impurity". "Sin offering" is chatta'ah, the word explained at Leviticus 4:3.

How it is translated: This Bible says "impurity" in 11 of the 24 verses that use niddah. In Leviticus the same word is used for a woman's monthly period, and this Bible says "period" in 5 of its 10 verses there. Older Bibles call this "the water of separation". In Numbers this Bible says "sin" or a longer form in 41 of the 42 verses that use chatta'ah; in 8:7 it is "the water of cleansing".

What changes: Read as "water for impurity" (or: water that takes impurity away), the name says what the water is for. Read as "water of separation", it names the state of the unclean person, kept apart until the water is sprinkled. Read as "a sin offering", the heifer is counted with the offerings for sin. Read as "a purification offering", it is for making clean. In this chapter the uncleanness comes from touching the dead.

In plain English: The one who gathers the heifer's ashes is to wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening. This is to be a rule forever for the Israelites and for the foreigner who lives among them.

In plain English: Whoever touches the dead body of any person will be unclean for seven days.

The Hebrew word: "The dead body" of any man is literally "the dead, any nefesh of a human". Nefesh is the word this Bible often gives as "soul", in 22 of the 44 verses of Numbers that use it.

Good to know: Here, as in Leviticus 21:11, the word means a dead person, not a living soul.

In plain English: He is to purify himself with the water on the third day, and on the seventh day he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day, he will not be clean on the seventh day.

The Hebrew word: "Purify himself" is a form of chata, the word for "to sin". The dictionary gives it as "properly, to miss; hence ... to sin", and also "expiate".

How it is translated: In Numbers this Bible says "sin" or a longer form in 10 of the 17 verses that use chata, and "purify" or a longer form in 8.

What changes: Read as "un-sin himself" or "cleanse himself of sin", the verse treats the uncleanness of death like a sin to be cleared away. Read as "purify himself", it is about being made clean, not about a wrong done. Verse 19 says the clean person sprinkles him on both the third and the seventh day.

In plain English: Anyone who touches a dead person, the body of someone who has died, and does not purify himself, makes Yahweh's tabernacle unclean. That person is to be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he is unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

In plain English: This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days.

In plain English: Every open container that has no lid tied on it is unclean.

In plain English: Anyone out in the open country who touches someone killed by a sword, or someone who has died, or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

In plain English: For the unclean person, they are to take some of the ashes (literally: dust) of the burned sin offering, and running (literally: living) water is to be poured on them in a container.

The Hebrew words: "Ashes" here is afar, which the dictionary gives as "dust (as powdered or gray)", not the word for ashes in verse 9. "Running water" is literally "living water": the dictionary gives chay as "alive", and also "fresh" for water, that is, water that flows, from a spring or stream.

In plain English: A clean person is to 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 the one who touched the bone, or the one killed, or the dead body, or the grave.

In plain English: The clean person is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day he is to purify him. Then he is to wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he will be clean at evening.

In plain English: But the person who is unclean and does not purify himself is to be cut off from among the assembly, because he has made Yahweh's sanctuary unclean. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean.

In plain English: It is to be a rule forever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity is to wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity will be unclean until evening.

In plain English: Anything the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person who touches it will be unclean until evening."