---
title: "Numbers 19 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/numbers/19/
description: "The law of the sacrifice of the red cow, and the water of expiation. Numbers 19 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Numbers 19

Numbers 19 is chapter 19 of 36 in the Book of Numbers. Here are all 22 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The law of the sacrifice of the red cow, and the water of expiation.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Numbers 19 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. And 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.
3. And you shall deliver it to Eleazar the priest, who, having led it out beyond the camp, shall immolate it in the sight of all.
4. And dipping his finger in its blood, he shall sprinkle it seven times, opposite the door of the tabernacle.
5. And he shall burn it, while all are watching, delivering into the flame, not only its skin and flesh, but also the blood and dung.
6. Likewise, cedar wood, and hyssop, and twice-dyed scarlet he shall cast into the flame, by which the cow is consumed.
7. And then finally, having washed his garments and his body, he shall enter into the camp, and he shall be deeply stained until evening.
8. Then he also who had burned it shall wash his garments and his body, and he shall be unclean until evening.
9. Then 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.
10. And when he who had carried the ashes of the cow will have washed his garments, he shall be unclean until evening. The sons of Israel, and the newcomers who live among them, shall have this as a holy and perpetual right.
11. Whoever touches the corpse of a man, and is, because of this, unclean for seven days,
12. shall be sprinkled from this water on the third and seventh days, and so shall he be cleansed. But if he was not sprinkled on the third day, he is not able to be cleansed on the seventh.
13. Anyone who will have touched the dead body of a human life, and who has not been sprinkled with this mixture, pollutes the tabernacle of the Lord, and he shall perish out of Israel. For not having been sprinkled with the water of expiation, he shall be unclean, and his filth shall remain upon him.
14. This is the law of a man who dies in a tent. All who enter into his tent, and all the vessels which are there, shall be polluted for seven days.
15. The vessel that has no cover or binding over it shall be unclean.
16. If anyone in the field will have touched the corpse of a man, who was killed or who died on his own, or his bone, or his grave, he shall be unclean for seven days.
17. And 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.
18. And into it a man who is clean shall dip hyssop, and he shall sprinkle from it the entire tent, and all its articles, and the men who were polluted by means of contact.
19. And so, in this manner, what is clean shall purify what is unclean, on the third and seventh days. And having been expiated on the seventh day, he shall wash both himself and his garments, and he shall be unclean until evening.
20. If anyone has not been expiated by this ritual, his soul shall perish from the midst of the Church. For he has polluted the Sanctuary of the Lord, and he has not been sprinkled with purifying waters.
21. This precept shall be an everlasting ordinance. Likewise, the one who has sprinkled the waters shall wash his garments. All who will have touched the waters of expiation shall be unclean until evening.
22. Whatever has been touched by something unclean will itself be made unclean. And the soul who touches any of these things shall become unclean until evening.”

## Numbers 19 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen et Aaron, dicens:
2. Ista est religio victimæ, quam constituit Dominus. Præcipe filiis Israël, ut adducant ad te vaccam rufam ætatis integræ, in qua nulla sit macula, nec portaverit jugum:
3. tradetisque eam Eleazaro sacerdoti, qui eductam extra castra, immolabit in conspectu omnium:
4. et tingens digitum in sanguine ejus, asperget contra fores tabernaculi septem vicibus,
5. comburetque eam cunctis videntibus, tam pelle et carnibus ejus quam sanguine et fimo flammæ traditis.
6. Lignum quoque cedrinum, et hyssopum, coccumque bis tinctum sacerdos mittet in flammam, quæ vaccam vorat.
7. Et tunc demum, lotis vestibus et corpore suo, ingredietur in castra, commaculatusque erit usque ad vesperum.
8. Sed et ille qui combusserit eam, lavabit vestimenta sua et corpus, et immundus erit usque ad vesperum.
9. Colliget autem vir mundus cineres vaccæ, et effundet eos extra castra in loco purissimo, ut sint multitudini filiorum Israël in custodiam, et in aquam aspersionis: quia pro peccato vacca combusta est.
10. Cumque laverit qui vaccæ portaverat cineres vestimenta sua, immundus erit usque ad vesperum. Habebunt hoc filii Israël, et advenæ qui habitant inter eos, sanctum jure perpetuo.
11. Qui tetigerit cadaver hominis, et propter hoc septem diebus fuerit immundus,
12. aspergetur ex hac aqua die tertio et septimo, et sic mundabitur. Si die tertio aspersus non fuerit, septimo non poterit emundari.
13. Omnis qui tetigerit humanæ animæ morticinum, et aspersus hac commistione non fuerit, polluet tabernaculum Domini et peribit ex Israël: quia aqua expiationis non est aspersus, immundus erit, et manebit spurcitia ejus super eum.
14. Ista est lex hominis qui moritur in tabernaculo: omnes qui ingrediuntur tentorium illius, et universa vasa quæ ibi sunt, polluta erunt septem diebus.
15. Vas, quod non habuerit operculum nec ligaturam desuper, immundum erit.
16. Si quis in agro tetigerit cadaver occisi hominis, aut per se mortui, sive os illius, vel sepulchrum, immundus erit septem diebus.
17. Tollentque de cineribus combustionis atque peccati, et mittent aquas vivas super eos in vas:
18. in quibus cum homo mundus tinxerit hyssopum, asperget ex eo omne tentorium, et cunctam supellectilem, et homines hujuscemodi contagione pollutos:
19. atque hoc modo mundus lustrabit immundum tertio et septimo die: expiatusque die septimo, lavabit et se et vestimenta sua, et immundus erit usque ad vesperum.
20. Si quis hoc ritu non fuerit expiatus, peribit anima illius de medio ecclesiæ: quia sanctuarium Domini polluit, et non est aqua lustrationis aspersus.
21. Erit hoc præceptum legitimum sempiternum. Ipse quoque qui aspergit aquas, lavabit vestimenta sua. Omnis qui tetigerit aquas expiationis, immundus erit usque ad vesperum.
22. Quidquid tetigerit immundus, immundum faciet: et anima, quæ horum quippiam tetigerit, immunda erit usque ad vesperum.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 2: “A red cow” … 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.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).