Numbers Chapter 19
1 The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
2 "This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded. Tell the children of Israel to bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no defect, and which was never yoked.
3 You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face.
4 Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood towards the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times.
5 One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her meat, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn.
6 The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the middle of the burning of the heifer.
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 evening.
8 He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.
9 "A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for use in water for cleansing impurity. It is a sin offering.
10 He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening. It shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner amongst them, for a statute forever.
11 "He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
12 He shall purify himself with water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he doesn't purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.
13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn't purify himself, defiles the LORD's tabernacle; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet on him.
14 "This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.
15 Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean.
16 "Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
17 "For the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured on them in a vessel.
18 A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave.
19 The clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall purify him. He shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening.
20 But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from amongst the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean.
21 It shall be a perpetual statute to them. He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.
22 "Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening."
Footnotes
Version: World English Bible
- About World English Bible (WEB)
- WEB Glossary
- WEB Web Site (source documents)
- Bible on one web page
- Download WEB (for MS Word)
Audio
To Listen to this Chapter
The mp3 Audio File should start to play in a new Tab. Then return to this Tab to follow the text whilst listening.
Numbers Chapter 19 Guide
A most interesting arrangement is here described. It was a provision for the sacrifice of a red heifer. Instructions were given for the ceremonial cleansing of the people during the period of their wilderness wanderings. It was at once provision for defilement and a protection for the priesthood.
With solemn ceremony and most minute carefulness, a red heifer was to be sacrificed according to instructions already given in Leviticus concerning other offerings. Then its ashes were to be carefully gathered and kept, in order that they might be mixed in water and used in certain cases of uncleanness.
This provision was followed by instructions on how to deal with those contaminated by contact with, or in the presence of, the dead.
In movements from place to place while the camp was not pitched and the ordinary methods of the ceremonial law could not be observed, cleansing was provided by the use of water in which these ashes were to be intermixed. Thus a gracious provision was made and at the same time the rights and prerogatives of the priesthood were safeguarded. Wherever the people might be, these ashes of the red heifer which had been sacrificed by priestly hands were available for use.
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
Numbers Chapter 19 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- The ashes of a heifer -- (1-10)
- Used to purify the unclean -- (11-22)
Verses 1-10
The heifer was to be wholly burned. This typified the painful sufferings of our Lord Jesus, both in soul and body, as a sacrifice made by fire, to satisfy God's justice for man's sin. These ashes are said to be laid up as a purification for sin, because, though they were only to purify from ceremonial uncleanness, yet they were a type of that purification for sin which our Lord Jesus made by his death. The blood of Christ is laid up for us in the word and sacraments, as a fountain of merit, to which by faith we may have constant recourse, for cleansing our consciences.
Verses 11-22
Why did the law make a corpse a defiling thing? Because death is the wages of sin, which entered into the world by it, and reigns by the power of it. The law could not conquer death, nor abolish it, as the gospel does, by bringing life and immortality to light, and so introducing a better hope. As the ashes of the heifer signified the merit of Christ, so the running water signified the power and grace of the blessed Spirit, who is compared to rivers of living water; and it is by his work that the righteousness of Christ is applied to us for our cleansing. Those who promise themselves benefit by the righteousness of Christ, while they submit not to the grace and influence of the Holy Spirit, do but deceive themselves; we cannot be purified by the ashes, otherwise than in the running water. What use could there be in these appointments, if they do not refer to the doctrines concerning the sacrifice of Christ? But comparing them with the New Testament, the knowledge to be got from them is evident. The true state of fallen man is shown in these institutions. Here we learn the defiling nature of sin, and are warned to avoid evil communications.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.