A reading from the Book of Numbers.

Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, This is the statute of the law that the

Lord has commanded.

Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no

blemish, and on which a yoke has never come, and you shall give it to Eliezer the

priest, and it shall be

taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him, and Elyazer the priest shall take some of its

blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting

seven times, and the heifer shall be burned in his sight, its skin, its flesh, and its blood,

with its dung shall be burned, and the priest shall skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned.

And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them into the fire

burning the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward

he may come into the camp, but the priests shall be unclean until evening.

The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his body in water,

and shall be unclean until evening. And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer

and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and they shall be kept for the water for

and purity for the congregation

of the people of Israel. It is a sin offering. And the one who gathers the ashes of the Heifer

shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the

people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them. Whoever touches the dead body of

any person shall be unclean seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day,

and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day,

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