Numbers 19
PATing in their unclcanncss, (chap. xvii. 12, 13.) hy shewing them a way how to be purified from the.greatest pollution, before they approached to the tabernacle. Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee.] At the common charge of the people, because it was for their common benefit. • A red heifer.’]’ The Hebrew word parah, which we translate heifer, signifies a young cow; as par signifies a young bnllock, not above two or three years old at most, as Kimchi and others observe. Jllthout spot.] This the Jews refer to’ the word red, which goes before, and take it to signify perfectly red, without the mixture of any other colour: for as to any other imperfections, they are provided against in the next words, without blemish: insomuch that Maimonides, in his treatise on this subject, saith, that if this cow had two hairs black or white, it was unfit for this use. From whence other nations, particularly the Egyptians, derived the custom of sacrificing red oxen, as Plutarch tells us in his book de Iside et Osiride, tu>v j3owv roue irvppovg KaSupzvov&tv, &c. And he saith they searched them so very narrowly, that if they found one hair black or white, they counted it oOotov, unfit to be sacrificed: see Bochartus, par. i. Hierozoic.lib. ii.cap.39. where he shews, this was the most common colour among that sort of creatures in some countries. Wherein is no blemish.] See Lev. xxii. 20—22. And upon which never came yoke.] Had never been employed in ploughing the ground, or any other work: for according to the common sense of all mankind, those creatures which had been made to serve other uses, became unfit to be offered to God. Whence Diomedes promises Pallas a cow of a year old, rjv ov7T(o v7ro £vyov riyaytv ctvrjp* Which no man hitherto had brought under the yoke. (Iliad. K.) And so doth Nestor, Odyss. 1. and the like Bochartus observes out of Virgil, Ovid, and others, in his Hierozoicon, (par. i.lib. ii. cap. 33.) All this is very plain; but why a young cow, rather than a bullock (which is commonly appointed in sacrifices), and why one perfectly red, is not so easy to understand. If we had any reason to believe that those superstitions were among the Egyptians in the days of Moses, which were when Plutarch or Herodotus lived, we might very probably say (as some men of learning have), that this precept was given to preserve the Israelites from their religion, For they abhorred to offer a cow, w r hom they honoured as sacred to Isis. So Herodotus; they sacrificed males, both old and young, Tagil StjXtae ov a
Numbers 19:1
JIlND theLord spake untoMoses and unto Aaron, saying. They were both concerned in what follows; Moses to deliver the command, and Aaron to see it executed.
Numbers 19:2
This is the ordinance. Or, the constitution. Of the law which the Lord hath commanded.] Which is now passed into a law by God’s command; who had ordered this water of purification to be made some time before, as appears from chap, viii.7. but now sets down a rule for all posterity to observe in the making of it. It is the rather mentioned now after the foregoing history, to free the people from that great fear they were in of perish-
Numbers 19:3
And ye shall give her. They who brought her in the name of the whole congregation were to bring her to Moses, as the foregoing verse directs: and he and Aaron were to deliver her to Eteazar.’ Unto Eleazar the priest.] It is commonly thought that Aaron might not be employed in the following work, because it would have defiled him, and made him unfit to minister before God for a season; which he was bound to avoid, even when natural afiection seemed to require it: (Lev. xxi. 11, 12.) yet a vulgar priest was not entrusted with this service, but it was committed unto the very next person to Aaron, who was to be his successor, because it w r as of very great weight and importance. Tliat he may bring her forth without the camp.] As a thing exceeding unclean; more impure than any common offering for sin. For tjie greater the impurity was that was laid upon any sacrifice, the further still off from the sanctuary it was carried, The bullock, for instance, which was offered for a sin committed by the priest, or the whole congregation, was in part offered at the altar, but the far greater part was to ]t>e burnt without the camp, (Lev. iv. 12. 20.) And so was the bullock and goat, offered for all the sins of the people, on the great day of expiation: (Lev. xvi. 27.) and the scape-goat, which was designed for the same purpose, was not so much as burnt, but banished into a land not inhabited, nobody knows whither. All which more particularly represented Christ in his sufferings, as the apostle observes, Heb. xiii. 11, 12. and so did this in part; having something of the nature of a sacrifice in it. For though it was not a sacrifice brought to be slain at the
Numbers 19:4
And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood ivlth his finger. As they did in expiatory sacrifices, (Lev. iv. 6.) • And sprinkle of her blood.] In the sprinkling of the blood, as the Jews observe, consisted the very essence of an expiatory sacrifice. Therefore, though this was not a sacrifice, yet it had something of that nature in it, and may be called a piacuhim, an expiatory thing; though nothing was called korban, a sacrifice, but what was offered at the altar, as our Dr. Outram hath most judiciously observed against Abarbinel, who calls this red cowan offering for sin. r Directly before the tabernacle of the congregation.] This rite of sprinkling the blood w r as never used but in sacrifices slain at the altar, in the presence of God; and in this red cow, which was slain in the, prospect of the sanctuary; towards which the priest was to look steadfastly while he sprinkled it; “otherwise, the Jews say, it was in vain: which shews that the validity of this act, and of the purification to be made by it, was to be expected from the sanctuary. For the blood of that heifer, whose head was cut off to cleanse a city, near to which a man was found slain by ah unknown person, was not sprinkled; being slain, not in Sight of the sanctuary, but in a valley near that city, (Deut. xxi. 3, 4, &c.) And in this the Jews were so curious, that after the temple was built, this blood being to be sprinkled directly before the porch of it, they took care the gate Shushan,, which was before it, should have lower battlements than any other gate of the temple had, that the priest might see the face of the porch of the house of God. - Seven times.] This signifies the perfection of the expiation that was to be made by this red cow, on whose ashes the Jews thought so much depended, that they took care the priest, who was to sec her burnt, should be put apart in a chamber of the temple (called the house of stone), that they might be certain he was free from all pollution by a grave, or a dead corpse. For the ashes of this burnt cow being the great and only cleanser for that defilement, they took suitable care that he should not be defiled who went to burn her. See Dr. Lighlfoot’s Temple Service, chap. 17. sect. 2. where he describes, out of Maimohides, and others, how solemnly the priest was attended when he went about this work. And the apostle had reason to mention the ashes of this heifer, wherewith the water was made for sprinkling the unclean, as the principal thing that sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, i. e. taking away bodily defilements: with which lie compares the blood of Christ, as infinitely more powerful for the purifying of the conscience from dead ivorks. (Heb. ix. 13, 14.) In which* words, dead works, there is. a respect (as our Dr. Jackson observes) to. the main intention of these ashes, which were’for the purification of those defiled by dead bodies. And he seems to: me also not to be led by fancy, but by a solid judgment* when he considered these ashes also as a notable figure of the everlasting efficacy of Christ’s blood, of which the apostle there discourses. For, if the frequent occasion for the use of the water of purification had not spent all the ashes of the heifer now slain and burnt by Eleazar, they might have been preserved for this purpose, without any danger of putrefaction, for a longer time than the law of ceremonies lasted. For ashes, being well kept, never perish;’ and therefore are an emblem of immortality. But it must be considered, that the frequent use of these, ashes might exhaust the whole stock of them made at this time, arid’ make it necessary the priests should burn another heifer for the same end; as the Jews say they did, though so rarely (as I shall note below), that this burning of a red heifer was not Teiterated, if we may believe them, till the destruction of Solomon’s temple. Which makes them a more notable 1 figure, though not a’peTfect one (for no such can bq found), of the power of Christ’s blood to purify us for ever, without the repetition of it continually; which was the imper-: fection of the legal sacrifices, that they must be often offered.
Numbers 19:5
And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood,‘with her dung, shall he burn. 7. There was a great pile of wood (to which they set fire immediately after he had done sprinkling), in whichthis heifer was more entirely burnt than any public expiatory sacrifice beforementioned, ver. 2. (for here the remainder of the blood is ordered to be burnt), because this was of all other things the most unclean, and to be utterly consumed “at a distance from the sanctuary.
Numbers 19:6
And the priest shall take cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet. These three things composed that instrument which the priest made use of for sprinkling of leprous persons, or liouses, when they were to be cleansed, (Lev. xiv. 6, 7. 49/50, &c. where see what I have noted.) And theapostle mentions two of them, as used by Moses himself, when he sprinkled the book of the covenant, and all thepeople, with the blood of the sacrifice; (Heb. ix. 19.) which, though not mentioned in Exodus, yet the apostle: knew was tho ancient way of sprinkling. And therefore these things which were* used of old as cleansers, cither of inward or outwaTd filth/ are ordered here to bel; thrown into the fire, while the heifer was burning in it,> whose ashes were to be the greafmeans of men’s purifica-; tiori from the highest pollutions. And cast it.] He speaks as if;these three things being bound together became one.; t… Into the midst of the burning of the heifer. 1 To denote; the great virtue which the water, made of the ashes of all these things, should have to -cleanse those who were sprinkled with it; one of these things (viz. hyssop) being ordered to be dipped into the.water for that purpose, (ver. 38.)
Numbers 19:7
The priest shall, wash his clothes, ami shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. Though we do not find that Eleazar was employed, either in killing or in burning this heifer, which was only, to be done in his presence, yet/ having touched her blood,, he became unclean; and therefore was to* use* these cere-2 4 E
Numbers 19:8
And he that burnetii her shall wash his clothes in water, &c. This was a general maxim among the Jews, that the bodies of those beasts whose blood was carried into tho holy place, polluted those that touched them: which is justified by Lev. xvi. 28. And therefore he.that burnt this heifer, whose blood was sprinkled towards it, was. to do the same as he that carried the scape-goat into the wilderness was also bound to do, (Lev. xvi. 26.):
Numbers 19:9
And a man that is clean.) Free from any legal defilement. Shall gather up the ashes of the heifer. They were the principal ashes, though the ashes of the cedar-wood, hyssop, and scarlet-wool, were also mingled with them; which, being, taken up, were pounded and sifted, as the Jews tell us. And lay them.up without the camp in a clean place.’] The Je.ws say that the heifer, in aftertimes, being burnt on the. pitch of Mount Olivet, which was over against the temple, they laid up some part of the ashes in a place near that mount, for the sprinkling of the people; and another part was delivered to the twenty-four courses, for the sprinkling of the priests; and another third part laid up for a memorial in the inclosure of the court of the temple. (See Dr. Lightfoot in the place beforcnamed.) But there is no certainty Qf this,. and. it contradicts in part what is here commanded, that they should be laid up without the camp. (See ver. 12.).:And it shall be kept.] Laid up, tig Star/jpTjtnv, as the LXX, translate it, to be reserved and kept for the use of those who had defiled themselves by the dead; unto whom it was delivered when they had occasion for it. And this.word rcserved, or kept, imports, that these ashes were not for the use of that generation only, but for all posterity. And as manna (which was commanded in the same form of speech to.be kept or reserved in the ark) was a type of Christ, as he was the food of life, or the bread that came down from heaven: so were these ashes kept as an emblem of the everlasting efficacy of his sacrifice. For there is no bodily substance under heaven (as Dr. Jackson speaks, book x. chap. 55.) which can be so. true an emblem or model of incprruption, as ashes are; for being the remainder of bodies perfectly dissolved or corrupted, they are not capable of a second corruption.. For the congregation of the children of Israel.] This one heifer, being slain, and its blood sprinkled, and body burnt, afforded ashes enough to season as many vessels of water as the whole people of Israel should need. Wherein it was a notable representation of Christ’s blood, shed for the whole world, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Yea, they were sufficient for all the people, for many genera-, tions,* though they had frequent occasion to use them for legal.purification; wherein still they more lively represented tho.virtue of Christ’s one sacrifice, which continues for ever. For the Jews say, this red heifer w f as killed but nine times, while their state lasted. First, by EJeazar here in the wilderness; which was not repeated till after the destruction of Solomon’s temple, i. e. not during the.space of more than a thousand years. The second time it was burnt by Ezra, after their return from the captivity of Babylon; and but seven times more, till the destruction of the second temple. Since which they have not adventured to make these ashes, but expect it to be done the tenth time by the king Messias, who, indeed, came to put an end to this and all other legal rites; not after the legal manner, but by offering himself once for all, instead of all other sacrifices or ways of purification. For a water of separation.’] To be put into spring-water (which was always accounted more pure than other), by which those persons were to be cleansed, who for their pollutions were separated from the congregation; and those things also which had been defiled were restored to their common use. Ashes, all know, are of great use in scour? ing things polluted; and the ancient gentiles used them much in their lustrations, as appears from Virgil, Ovid, and many other authors. But the water into which they put them was prepared with magical rites, and, for tho most part, was drawn out of some pretended sacred fountain; and sometimes it had a burning torch, taken from the altar, quenched in it; and in some places they put sulphur, and spittle, and other cleansing things, into it. In which, I suppose, at first they imitated this rite prescribed by Moses; but in process of time add^d many superstitions of their own to it It is a purification for sin.] In the Hebrew the words are, it is sin; and we add, a purification, to explain the sense. For it was not a proper sacrifice for sin, (as this phrase for sin sometimes imports, Lev. iv. 24.) but had something of that nature in it (as I observed before), and may be properly said to purify or cleanse men from their sin, i.e. from such legal defilemcntsas are mentioned afterwards. And it may, in a less proper sense, have the name of a sin-offer* ing, inasmuch as the body of it was burnt without tho camp (as the great sin-offering was on the day of atonement), and its blood sprinkled seven times towards the sanctuary, though not shed at the altar; whereby it became a more complete representation of the sacrifice of Christ,; especially if we consider, that this purification here mentioned doth not signify only one, or a few acts of purification, but a continued purification /the ashes being to be laid up as a treasure or storehouse (to use Dr. Jackson’s words) for making, as. many purifications, or waters of sprinkling, as tho Israelites should have occasion to use. For therein consisted the excellence of this purification, that the ashes w r ere not to be made by burning a heifer every time the people had occasion for them; but the ashes of this one sacrifice (as we may call it) was sufficient for the use of many generations. Accordingly the apostle saith our Lord Christ, KaQaptvfxbv woiriaa^vog, having made a purification of our sins, (Heb. i. 3.) sat down at God’s right hand: which. word ^purification, in that place, doth not signify one act or operation, but implies that by this one act of sacrificing himself, he was consecrated to be a perpetual fountain of purification, being still the propitiation for our sins.
Numbers 19:10
And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer.shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even. This
Numbers 19:11
He that toacheth the body of any dead man shall be unclean seven days. This long uncleanness by touching a dead body, was the ground of those strict injunctions to the priests about mourning for their dead relations; which’ is forbidden, lest they should be hindered too long in their ministration. (See Lev. xxi.) He that touched* the “carcass of any unclean creature, was defiled only until the even, (Lev. xi. 24.) nor was he longer who touched the bed of him that had an issue, or his seat,&c. (Lev. xv. 5^8.)
Numbers 19:12
He shall purify himself with it. With the water qf separation, mentioned ver. 9. Which seems here to be designed chiefly, if not only, for the purging of this great impurity, by touching any man’s dead body. On the third day.] Then he was to begin his purification, by being sprinkled with it; which makes it probable that these ashes were kept in more places than the Jews mention without the camp (as afterward near Jerusalem), and, it is most likely, in all the cities of the country. For it had been too hard for all the people, nay, impossible for those who were remote, to go to Jerusalem the third day after they were defiled to fetch these ashes; which, therefore, were kept in several clean places, where every body might easily have them to put into water, and be sprinkled with it. For as there was no sacrifice, so no priest -required to make this purification; but any clean person might sprinkle the water, (ver. 18, 19.) And on the seventh day he shall be clean.] Then his purification was perfected; but not without a new sprinkling on this day, (ver. 19.) But if he purified not himself the third day, then thesevmth day he shall not be clean.] If he did not begin his purification on the third day, his sprinkling on the seventh would not make him clean. But it is very probable, that, though he omitted it on the third day, yet, ifiie purified himself on the fourth ox fifth, or any day following, that being reckoned as if it had been the third, when he had made up the number seven, his cleansing might be completed.
Numbers 19:13
JVJiosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, andpurifieth not himself. With the water of separation, in the manner before prescribed, (ver. 12.) Defileth the tabernacle of the Lord.’] If he approach unto it without this purification. And that soul shall be cut off from Israel.] He was to dife for it if he did it presumptuously. • • Because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him.] Because he neglected the means of his purification.’ He shall be unclean.] Remain in his uncleanness.‘‘His uncleanness is yet upon him.] Not to be purified now by this water of separation, but cut off from the body of the people. » This still concerns those that came to the tabernacle presumptuously, being unpurified. If they did it ignorantly, a sacrifice was admitted for their atonement* (Lev.v. 3:6.17,18.)
Numbers 19:14
This is the law. Concerning such defilements as these, by the dead bodies of men.’ < tVhen a man dieth in a tent.] Wherein they now lived during their stay in the wilderness; and the same law obliged them, when they came to dwell in houses, in the land of Canaan. All that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.] The meaning seems to be, that every person who came into the tent while trie dead body lay there (or before the tetit was purified), as well as they who weire in it when the person died, should be unclean*. For all the goods of the house were not made unclean; but only all open vessels.
Numbers 19:15
And every open vessel wliich hath no covering bound upon it is unclean. Because* the air in the house, which was supposed to be tainted by the dead body, came as freely into such vessels as it did to the dead body. Tho. Aquinas fancies, that this law was ma^deto prevent idolatry: for the ancient idolaters thought, that if a mouse, or a lizard, or such-like thing, which was dedicated unto their idols, fellinto a vessel, or into water, they became thereby very acceptable to their gods. And he saith this superstition continued till his days; in which some women were wont to leave their vessels uncovered on purpose, in observance of the nocturnal deities, whom they called Janos. (See Prima et Secunda Quest. 102. artic. 5.) To abolish which superstition God required, he thinks, all vessels left uncovered, where the dead lay, should be polluted; i. e. not acceptable unto God, nor employed to holy, no, nor common, uses. If such Customs had been in Moses’s days,* this might be better applied to what we read in Lev;-xi. 32, 33;
Numbers 19:16
JVJiosoever toucheth one that is slain with the sword in the open fields. Or killed any other way, it dp* pears by* the words following. Or a dead body.] Of a man that falls down dead of a sudden, or is executed for his crimes. Or a bone of a man.] Taken out of a grave, or the grave itself where the dead body lies; as the next words are. ) Shatlbc unclean seven days.] As long as if he had touched the dead body itself.
Numbers 19:17
And for an unclean person. i. e. For the cleansing of one defiled any of these ways. • Tliey shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer ofpurifica* Hon for sin.] It is not said what quantity, therefore; I suppose, whether it were little or great it would serve the turn. It is observable, that the ashes of the burnt heifer are here called chattah (sin), which shews they had the virtue of a sin-offering in them. (See ver. 9.) And running-water shall be put thereto in a vessel.] Th6
Numbers 19:18
And a clean person. It is not said a priest; and therefore I. suppose any other person, who was not unclean, might do this: as any such person might slay the heifer, and burn her, (ver. 3. 5.) But in this the Jews were so curious, that their tradition made this extend, not only to a person that was at present clean, but that never had been defiled. by a dead corpse in all his life; and therefore tell us what devices they had to keep persons thus clean, for this very end and purpose. (See Dr. Lightfoot in his Temple Service, chap. 17. sect. 2.) Shall take hyssop.] When the priests sprinkled the lepers, or their houses, with the blood of a bird killed over running-water, he dipped hyssop, cedar-wood, and scarletwool in them, (Lev. xiv. 4. 6, 7. 49, 50, &c.) But here the sprinkling being made by some neighbour, hyssop alone sufliced; which everyone knows was a cleansing herb, and easily procured: instead of which the gentiles, in their superstition, used branches of laurel, or of olive; as.we learn from Juvenal and Virgil.‘And sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and tipon the persons that were there, &c] For the purifying of all the things, and all the persons abovementioned, (ver. 14—16.) r
Numbers 19:19
And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the tinclean on the third day, and on the seventh’ day. Here he explains what was not so distinctly delivered, ver. 12. And I suppose both persons and things were to be sprinkled on both days, because he saith in general, upon the unclean; which seems to relate to all that is mentioned in the foregoing verse; :, And on the seventh day he shall purify himself &c] This seems to be meant of the clean person who sprinkled the unclean, and by coming near them, was in some sort defiled. But he was not to be purified by the water of separation; but only by washing his clothes,and bathing himself in water; and his uncleanness lasted but till the even, as it here follows in the rest of this verse. (See ver. 21.). Ver.*20. But the man that shall be unclean.] By a dead body, a bone, or a grave, &c.., And shall not purify himself ] By the water of separation appointed for that purpose. That so7il shall be cut off from among the congregation.] As a contemner of this law of God. Because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord, &c] This andthe following words are only a repetition of what was said ver. 13. for the greater confirmation of it.:
Numbers 19:21
And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes. Be reputed unclean, until he hath washed his clothes; which Isuppose comprehendshis body also, ver. 19. And he that toucheth the water of separation.] As a man might chance to do, when he mingled the water and ashes together,(ver.-17.) Shall be unclean until even.] And wash his clothes, it must be supposed from the foregoing words. For mere staying till even purified nobody, without some rite of cleansing. And there was more reason for him that touched the water, immediately to wash his clothes, than for him >vho only sprinkled with it.’
Numbers 19:22
And whatsoever^. Or whomsoever. The unclean person toucheth shall be unclean.] He doth not mean, by the nuclean person, him who was made unclean by touching the water of separation (for his uncleanness was so slight, that any one would think he should make nobody unclean by his touch), but the unclean person spoken of all along in this chapter; who was defiled by touching a dead body. He whom such a person touched was made unclean, and therefore was to wash his clothes, and not be thought clean until the even. And the soul that toucheth it.] Or toucheth him. Shall be unclean until the even.] Not only he whom the unclean person touched, but ho who touched the^ unclean person, or any. unclean thing, was to be unclean till tho even, and wash his clothes (as I said before) for his cleansing. No other cleansing was necessary for suck kinds of uncleanness as these. For sacrifices were required only for the uncleanness of lepers, and of a childbed woman, and of a flux of blood, or seed: all others were purged without sacrifice., By this nice care, which is here taken, about the smallest bodily defilements, God intended (I make no doubt) to make them sensible how necessary it was to preserve in-, ward purity; without which they could not be acceptable to God, though they approached to his sanctuary. For; these laws,extendingtowhatwas done at home, as well as abroad, were a plain instruction, both that it Avas not sufficient to be pure in the eyes of men, and that nothing could be concealed from the Divine Majesty, who sees what passeth in secret,