What does Numbers 19 require to cleanse someone made unclean by contact with the dead?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The law requires the ashes of the red cow mixed with water and sprinkling on the third and seventh days, followed by washing and uncleanness until evening. It also gives the preparation rules and warns that a person left unpurified profanes the sanctuary and must perish from the congregation.

Chapter breakdown

The Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron and gives the ordinance for the sacrificial victim. They must command Israel to bring a red cow of full age, without blemish, which has never carried a yoke.

Challoner reads the red cow offered for sin and burned outside the camp, whose ashes mixed with water purify the unclean, as a figure of Christ’s passion. He explains that Christ’s precious blood, applied to our souls in the holy sacraments, cleanses us from sin. This is the note’s Christian reading of the rite.

The cow must be delivered to Eleazar the priest. He is to bring her outside the camp and sacrifice her in everyone’s sight. Dipping his finger in her blood, he must sprinkle it seven times toward the door of the tabernacle. He must burn her in everyone’s sight, giving her skin, flesh, blood and dung to the fire. The priest must also throw cedar wood, hyssop and twice-dyed scarlet into the flame consuming the cow. These are instructions; this chapter does not narrate Eleazar carrying them out.

After washing his clothes and body, the priest is to enter the camp and remain unclean until evening. The person who burns the cow must likewise wash his clothes and body and remain unclean until evening. A clean man must gather the ashes and place them outside the camp in a most clean place. They are to be reserved for Israel’s people and for water used in sprinkling—the source calls it ‘water of aspersion’—because the cow was burned for sin. The person who carries the ashes must wash his clothes and remain unclean until evening. Israel and the strangers living among them must observe this as a holy thing under a perpetual ordinance.

Anyone who touches a human corpse is unclean for seven days. He must be sprinkled with this water on the third and seventh days to be cleansed. Without the third-day sprinkling, he cannot be cleansed on the seventh. Anyone who touches a human corpse and is not sprinkled with the mixture profanes the Lord’s tabernacle and must perish out of Israel. Because he has not received the water of purification, he remains unclean and his uncleanness stays upon him.

When a man dies in a tent, everyone who enters his tent and all the vessels there are unclean for seven days. A vessel with no cover or binding over it is unclean. In a field, anyone who touches the corpse of a man who was slain or died naturally, or touches his bone or grave, is unclean for seven days.

The ashes from the burning and the sin offering must be put in a vessel, with living water poured over them. A clean man must dip hyssop in the mixture and sprinkle the whole tent, all its furniture, and the people made unclean by touching any such thing. In this way the clean person is to purify the unclean on the third and seventh days. After the seventh-day purification, the person must wash himself and his clothes and remain unclean until evening.

If a person is not purified by this rite, his soul must perish from the congregation—the source says ‘out of the midst of the church’—because he has profaned the Lord’s sanctuary and has not been sprinkled with the water of purification. This command is an ordinance forever. The person who sprinkles the water must wash his clothes. Anyone who touches the water of purification is unclean until evening. Whatever an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches those things is unclean until evening.

The story inside

The chapter traces a commanded process from preparing the victim to cleansing those affected by contact with the dead. The cow’s ashes are to be stored for the people and used in the sprinkling water. Preparation and use have their own washing rules: the priest and burner wash both clothes and body, while the ash carrier and the person who sprinkles are given clothing-wash instructions.

The law also distinguishes kinds of contact. Human corpse contact, entering the death-tent and its vessels, and the named contacts in the field receive seven-day rules. Touching the purification water or objects made unclean by an unclean person receives an until-evening rule. The two periods should not be flattened into a single duration.

For the seven-day cleansing, both specified sprinklings matter. The third cannot be skipped and replaced by the seventh; the seventh-day purification still includes washing and waiting until evening. The warning about an unpurified person explains the seriousness of this requirement. These are the ordinance’s steps and stated consequences, not a report that Eleazar performed the rite or that a particular number of people were cleansed.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The days are part of the requirement. The law states that missing the third-day sprinkling prevents cleansing on the seventh, and that washing and waiting until evening follow the seventh-day purification.
2
The contact rules differ. Death-related contacts receive seven-day rules, while touching the purification water or things made unclean by an unclean person brings uncleanness until evening. Keeping the distinctions avoids changing the law.
3
The Christian reading is attributed. Challoner connects the red cow and cleansing water with Christ’s passion and sacramental cleansing. That explanation is kept alongside, and separate from, the Scripture’s instructions.

Test your recall

Why can the seventh-day sprinkling not replace the third-day sprinkling, and what remains required after the seventh-day purification?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 16367–16377
Numbers Chapter 19 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:
Lines 16378–16383
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.
Lines 16384–16395
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.
Lines 16396–16411
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.
Lines 16412–16424
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.
Lines 16425–16435
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.
Lines 16436–16447
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.
Lines 16448–16461
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.