Regulations concerning Priests

21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:

‘^(A)No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people, ^2 (B)except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother and his father and his son and his daughter and his brother, ³ also for his virgin sister, who is near to him ^[a]because she has had no husband; for her he may defile himself.

¹¹ ‘^(A)The one who touches the corpse of any ^[a]person shall be unclean for seven days. ¹² That one shall ^(B)purify himself from uncleanness with ^[b]the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. ^13 (C)Anyone who touches a corpse, the ^[c]body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, ^(D)defiles the ^[d]tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not ^[e](E)sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ ‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ Every open vessel, which has no covering ^[f]tied down on it, shall be unclean. ^16 (F)Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days. ¹⁷ Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ^[g]ashes of the ^[h]burnt ^[i](G)purification from sin and ^[j]flowing water shall be ^[k]added to them in a vessel. ¹⁸ A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave. ¹⁹ Then the clean person ^(H)shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.

²⁰ ‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has ^(I)defiled the sanctuary of the Lord; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean. ²¹ So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he ^(J)who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. ^22 (K)Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’”