Numbers 19 - Introduction
_OF THE RED HEIFER; HER BURNING; THE WATER OF SEPARATION, AND THE USE OF IT FOR PURIFYING THE UNCLEAN._ _Before Christ 1471._... [ Continue Reading ]
_OF THE RED HEIFER; HER BURNING; THE WATER OF SEPARATION, AND THE USE OF IT FOR PURIFYING THE UNCLEAN._ _Before Christ 1471._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SPOKE UNTO MOSES, &C.— The sudden death of so many Israelites, who dropped by the late plague, chap. Numbers 16:46; Numbers 16:49 had put a great number of their friends and relations into a state of legal uncleanness, which made them incapable of approaching the tabernacle for divine w... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO ELEAZAR— Not Aaron himself, because, by being employed in the following work, he would have been defiled: a thing which, in all cases, he was to avoid. Other reasons are given for this employment of Eleazar; but, perhaps, we may truly say with Spencer, that the cause of this precept arose from... [ Continue Reading ]
DIRECTLY BEFORE THE TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION— _Towards the Tabernacle of Meeting,_ Nold. 833.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRIEST SHALL TAKE CEDAR-WOOD, AND HYSSOP, &C.— See Leviticus 14:4. The Apostle, Hebrews 9:19 mentions scarlet wood and hyssop as used by Moses himself when he sprinkled the book of the covenant, &c. with the blood of the sacrifice; and therefore these things, which appear to have been used of ol... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRIEST SHALL WASH HIS CLOTHES— See Leviticus 24:23; Leviticus 24:23. Bishop Patrick says, some may think it strange, that the same thing should both cleanse and pollute: but this is agreeable to the notion of all expiatory sacrifices; which, though they purified those for whom they were offered,... [ Continue Reading ]
A MAN THAT IS CLEAN— i.e. free from any legal defilement—_shall gather up the ashes;_ which, being taken up, were pounded and sifted, as the Jews tell us:—_and it shall be kept; i.e._ according to some, not for the use of that generation only, but for posterity also: for _ashes,_ being the remainder... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT TOUCHETH THE DEAD BODY OF ANY MAN— He that touched a dead beast was unclean only one day, Leviticus 11:24; Leviticus 11:47. He that touched the dead body of a man was unclean seven days; so that this was among the greater legal-pollutions; to teach, says Ainsworth, that sin has made mankind... [ Continue Reading ]
ON THE THIRD DAY, AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY HE SHALL BE CLEAN— See Numbers 19:19. Hence it appears, that this water of separation was designed chiefly for the purging of that great impurity contracted by touching a dead body.—We may also infer from this, that these ashes were kept in all the cities of... [ Continue Reading ]
DIETH IN A TENT— Wherein they now lived; and, by parity of reason, the same law obliged them, when they came to dwell in houses. _All that is in the tent,_ means all the persons, not all the goods; as appears from the next verse, where only uncovered vessels are declared unclean.... [ Continue Reading ]
SLAIN WITH A SWORD— In chap. Numbers 31:19 this is expressed more generally; _whosoever hath touched any slain_—whether by the sword, or any other instrument.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY HE SHALL PURIFY HIMSELF— That is, the person who sprinkled the unclean, as Numbers 19:21. Such is the law concerning the red heifer, &c. upon which Calmet thus concludes his observations. We have already remarked, by the way, that the sacrifice of the red heifer was a figure... [ Continue Reading ]