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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Numbers 19:1 - 19:10
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The Preparation of the Water
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
v. 2. This is the ordinance of the Law, the most important statute of instruction dealing with Levitical purification, which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, of a solid color, wherein is no blemish, no disease or defect of any kind, and upon which never came yoke, all these points being traits of the freshest life, of the fullness of strength;
v. 3. and ye shall give her unto Eleazar, the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, since the entire rite was connected most closely with the defilement of death and could therefore not take place in the court of the Tabernacle, and one shall slay her before his face;
v. 4. and Eleazar, the priest, as the presumptive successor of his father in the office of high priest, shall take of her blood with his finger, after it had been brought to the Sanctuary and kept from coagulating by constant stirring, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the Tabernacle of the Congregation seven times. By this rite the slain animal became a sacrifice, a sin-offering. In order to remind the congregation that death is the wages of sin, this antidote against the uncleanness of death was taken from a sin-offering. The life of the slain beast, sacrificed for the sin of the congregation, was thus delivered to the Lord, to signify that death itself was rendered powerless by the death of this most perfect blooming life.
v. 5. And one shall burn the heifer in his sight, Eleazar, as before, being responsible for the proper execution of everything connected with the sacrifice: her skin and her flesh and her blood with her dung shall he burn;
v. 6. and the priest shall take cedar-wood, which was a symbol of inexhaustible strength of life, and hyssop, to which were ascribed purifying properties, and scarlet, which typified the intensive power of life, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer, in order to make the ashes represent everything that was full of the highest life and strength, the very essence of indestructive power.
v. 7. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even, as having handled, symbolically at least, the uncleanness of death.
v. 8. And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even, for the same reason as the priest.
v. 9. And a man that is clean, Levitically pure, shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, for they were now a most precious treasure, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, store them up most carefully, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation, to prepare a water intended to remove certain defilements.
v. 10. And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even, for he also became Levitically defiled by the performance of this task; and it shall be unto the children of Israel and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them for a statute forever; the special rites connected with the water of purification as prepared with the ashes were to be observed as long as the Levitical priesthood and its ordinances would endure. The Lord at all times wants pure and holy people as His servants.