the red heifer

¹And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: ²“This is the ritual that the Lord has appointed for a victim. Instruct the sons of Israel, so that they may bring to you a red cow of full maturity, in which there is no blemish, and which has not carried a yoke. ³And you shall deliver it to Eleazar the priest, who, having led it out beyond the camp, shall immolate it in the sight of all. ⁴And dipping his finger in its blood, he shall sprinkle it seven times, opposite the door of the tabernacle. ⁵And he shall burn it, while all are watching, delivering into the flame, not only its skin and flesh, but also the blood and dung. ⁶Likewise, cedar wood, and hyssop, and twice-dyed scarlet he shall cast into the flame, by which the cow is consumed.

¹³For if the blood of goats and oxen, and the ashes of a calf, when these are sprinkled, sanctify those who have been defiled, in order to cleanse the flesh,

²“This is the ritual that the Lord has appointed for a victim. Instruct the sons of Israel, so that they may bring to you a red cow of full maturity, in which there is no blemish, and which has not carried a yoke.

⁹Then a clean man shall gather the ashes of the cow, and he shall pour them out beyond the camp, in a very pure place, so that they may be preserved for the multitude of the sons of Israel, and for the water of aspersion, because the cow was burned for sin.

⁶Likewise, cedar wood, and hyssop, and twice-dyed scarlet he shall cast into the flame, by which the cow is consumed.

¹⁰Many will be chosen and purified, and, as if by fire, they will be tested, and the impious will act impiously, and none of the impious will understand, yet the teachers will understand.

¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the Holy Spirit has offered himself, immaculate, to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, in order to serve the living God?

¹²entered once into the Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption, neither by the blood of goats, nor of calves, but by his own blood.

¹⁷And they shall take some of the ashes from the burning and the sin offering, and they shall pour living waters over them into a vessel.

³And you shall deliver it to Eleazar the priest, who, having led it out beyond the camp, shall immolate it in the sight of all.

⁵And he shall burn it, while all are watching, delivering into the flame, not only its skin and flesh, but also the blood and dung.

³And in whichever one they perceive to be closer than the others, the elders shall take a calf from the herd, one which has not pulled with a yoke, nor tilled with a plow.

¹And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

¹⁸And they, on the seventh day, before the sun declined, said to him: “What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?” And he said to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have uncovered my proposition.”

¹¹Ephraim is a heifer that has been taught to love treading out the grain, but I passed over the beauty of her neck. I will rise over Ephraim. Judah will plough; Jacob will break up the soil for himself.

¹⁶For Israel has gone astray like a wanton heifer; so now the Lord will pasture them like a young lamb in a wide expanse.