One who brings an earthenware vessel for the [waters of] purification immerses [himself] and spends the night next to the furnace [in which the vessel is being smelted] (Par. 5:1). If he spent the night before he immersed, Rebbi [holds that he] defiles [the vessel]. Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Yehuda says, if he spends the night and afterwards he immerses, if there was no presumption that [the vessel] was under guard, it is [deemed] impure. As for terumah, he may open the furnace and take it. If he found it open or if one of them was opened, Rabbi Shimon says, [he may take the vessel] from the second row. Rabbi Yosei says, from the third row. Rabbi Shimon ben Yehuda says in the name of Rabbi Shimon, Beit Shammai say, from the third row, and Beit Hillel say, from the second row, and that is the first Mishnah (i.e., how the halacha was originally transmitted). Our Rabbis say, he opens and he takes it and he need not refrain. And the chaver may come even after three days, and if he removes the coverings* and finds dust on top of the vessels, behold, he may take one [even if] all of them were under the control of an am ha'aretz.

In a place where they coat the nicer (הנאות) [vessels] with white plaster, and a chaver stands (i.e., watches) over the coating, the pile [of vessels] that he watches over are not impure; rather, that pile alone [is pure]. The chaver stands above and the am ha'aretz below and he pulls [a vessel] out and gives it to him. An am ha'aretz is believed to say, "I did not defile it," because he is presumed to have been watched over.

He filled a bucket to drink, and reconsidered it: Before he touches the water, he pours it out and needs to dry it. If once he touched the water he reconsidered it, he pours it out but does not need to dry it. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel says, there is no need to pour it out. He lowered a bucket to fill it and the rope snapped out of his hand, if before it reached the water he reconsidered it, he pours it out and needs to dry it. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel says, there is no need to pour it out.

A [reed] tube that was cut for [use as a vessel for the waters of] purification: Rabbi Eliezer says, it defiles and there is no need to immerse. Rabbi Yehoshua says, it defiles and he immerses it. [If] the waters of purification or the ashes of purification entered into it before he immersed it, it is impure, and Rabbi Shimon renders it pure, and the Sages render it impure.

Everyone is fit to sanctify (i.e., mix the ashes and the water), except for a deaf-mute, an imbecile, and a minor. Rabbi Yehuda deems a minor fit. Rabbi Yishmael son of Rabbi Yochanan ben Berokah says, a deaf-mute, an imbecile, and a minor who mixed and others supervised them, their mixture is fit. [As to] a tumtum, his mixture is disqualified because there is a doubt as to whether he is uncircumcised, and the uncircumcised are disqualified from mixing. An androgynous, his mixture (קדושו) is fit, but Rabbi Yehuda deems it disqualified, because there is a doubt as to whether he is a woman, and women are disqualified from mixing.

A wooden vessel, a bone vessel, a glass vessel, they may not [be used to] mix [the ashes and water]. An ostrich [egg], it is fit to mix in it. Whether [the vessel] is carved into a stream of water, or whether it is a receptacle, even though it is detached from the water or it was affixed to it, they may not fill with it, or mix with it, or sprinkle from it, it does not require a tightly fitting lid, and it does not disqualify a mikveh. [If] it was detached or affixed, and he reconsidered it after he detached it, they may fill with it, and mix with it, and sprinkle from it, and it requires a tightly fitting lid, and it disqualifies a mikveh.

A spring that descends into a mortar, and he intends to mix with it, he stops [the flow] and dries it off, and[then] he returns and continues the stream of water and mixes [with it]. A trough that is surrounded by נממיות, if [the waters] were mixed together [through a hole] the size of the mouth of a water skin, one may sanctify the rest, and if not, he needs to sanctify each one individually. Rabbi Yehuda says in the name of Rabbi Eliezer, if he made a rim (lit., "crown") of plaster in order that the water may rise to that point, then whether he can carry [the vessel] with it, or whether he cannot carry [the vessel] with it, it is fit (cf. Par. 5:7). A plaster trough, if he can carry with it, it is fit, and if not, it is disqualified.

Two stones adjacent to one another (Par. 5:9), and he made them into a trough, and so too two kneading troughs, and so too a split kneading trough: Said Rabbi Yosei, regarding this halacha, I jumped up before Rabbi Akiva, and I said before him, "Neither of them may be used to mix [the ashes], for the water that is in the fissure [between the troughs] is not bound up like that of a vessel." And if one touches the sponge (inside the trough) so that water is squeezed out of it, it is disqualified (Par. 6:3). But if it only fell inside, they may mix with it, and carry it, and squeeze it, and the water is fit.