Numbers 19:14

_HE THAT TOUCHETH THE DEAD BODY OF ANY MAN SHALL BE UNCLEAN SEVEN DAYS._ He that toucheth the dead body of any man. This law is noticed here to show the uses to which the water of separation was applied. The case of a death is one; and as in every family which sustained a bereavement the members of the household became defiled, so in an immense population, where instances of mortality and other cases of uncleanness would be daily occurring, the water of separation must have been in constant requisition. To afford the necessary supply of the cleansing mixture, the Jewish writers say that red heifer was sacrificed every year, and that the ashes, mingled with the sprinkling ingredients, were distributed through all the cities and towns of Israel. Verse 12. PURIFY HIMSELF ... THE THIRD DAY. The necessity of applying the water on the third day is inexplicable on any natural or moral ground;...

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 concerni...

One practical effect of attaching defilement to a dead body, and to all that touched it, etc., would be to insure early burial, and to correct a practice not uncommon in the East, of leaving the deal to be devoured by the wild beasts....

EXPOSITION THE ASHES OF AN HEIFER SPRINKLING THE UNCLEAN (Numbers 19:1). NUMBERS 19:1 AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES AND UNTO AARON. On the addition of the second name see on Numbers 18:1. There is no note of time in connection with this chapter, but internal evidence points strongly to the supposition that it belongs to the early days of wandering after the ban. It belongs to a period when death had resumed his normal, and more than his normal, power over the children of Israel; when, having been for a short time expelled (except in

THIS IS THE LAW WHEN A MAN DIETH IN A TENT,.... A tent is only mentioned, because the Israelites now dwelt in tents, as Aben Ezra remarks; otherwise the law holds equally good of an house as of a tent: ALL THAT COME INTO THE TENT, AND ALL THAT IS IN THE TENT, SHALL BE UNCLEAN SEVEN DAYS; the meaning of which is, that all persons that come into a tent or house where a dead body is are equally unclean as those that were in it when it died; and the same is to be supposed of all vessels brought into it, as well as those that are in it, that is, open ones, as appears by what follows....

Numbers 19:1. _And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,_ This ordinance was not given to Moses on Mount Sinai, but in the wilderness of Paran, after the people had broken their covenant with God, and were condemned to die. You know that the 90 th Psalm that dolorous dirge which we read at funerals, called, «a prayer of Moses the man of God.» Well might he write that Psalm, for he lived among a generation of people who were all doomed to die within a short time, and to die in the wilderness. This ordinance was especially appointed to meet the cases of those who were rendered unclean by the frequent deaths which occurred. There was to be a simple and easy way of purification for them; and the teaching of this chapter to us is that, inasmuch as we dwell in a sinful world, there needs to be some simple and ready method of cleansing us, that we may be able to draw near to G

9. THE RED HEIFER AND THE WATER OF PURIFICATION CHAPTER 19 _ 1. The provision appointed: The red heifer and the ashes (Numbers 19:1)_ 2. The use of the water of purification (Numbers 19:11) This is a most interesting chapter. The ordinance of the red heifer and the water of purification is nowhere mentioned in Leviticus. The day of atonement, so prominent in Leviticus, is not referred to in Numbers at all. The provision of the water of purification is characteristic of the wilderness book. The people were dying by the thousands, and means had to be provided for the cleansing of those who became defiled by contact with the dead. The ashes of the red heifer used in the way as described in this chapter were for the cleansing of the defiled. Without following the details of th

THE PURIFICATION OF THE UNCLEAN THROUGH CONTACT WITH THE DEAD. This was effected by sprinkling the unclean person twice within seven days (Numbers 19:12 _mg._, Numbers 19:19) with running water, the virtue of which had been intensified by various ingredients, viz. the ashes of a red cow, cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet thread. The use of running water in such lustrations was doubtless based on the belief that springs and wells (pp. 100, 216) were the abodes of superhuman powers, and that a Divine quality pertained to water drawn from them, which was capable of neutralising impurity. Amongst the Greeks a vessel of spring water was placed at the door of a house where a death had occurred, for the purification of those who might become contaminated (_cf._ Eurip. _Alc._ 98- 100). But in the rit

A second use of the -water of impurity." Mere presence under the same roof as the dead, without actual contact, causes defilement....

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....