Numbers 19:5

_AND ELEAZAR THE PRIEST SHALL TAKE OF HER BLOOD WITH HIS FINGER, AND SPRINKLE OF HER BLOOD DIRECTLY BEFORE THE TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION SEVEN TIMES:_ No JFB commentary on these 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....

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

AND [ONE] SHALL BURN THE HEIFER IN HIS SIGHT,.... Another priest, as the Targum of Jonathan, Eleazar looking on, as that expresses it; the Jews say g, that when the priest came to the mount of Olives, accompanied by the elders of Israel, before he burnt the cow, he dipped himself in a dipping place there; and the wood being laid there in order, wood of cedar, ash, fir, and fig trees, made in the form of a tower, with holes opened in it (to put in the fire, and that it might burn the quicker), and its aspect being to the west, he bound the cow, and laid her upon the pile, with her head to the south, and her face to the west; and then having slain it, and sprinkled its blood, as before related, he set fire to it by the help of some small wood: the burning of it may signify the dolorous sufferings of Christ, when the wrath of God was poured forth like fire upon him; the same was signified b...

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

BURN. Hebrew. _saraph._ See App-43....

H. LAWS OF THE RED HEIFER AND UNCLEANNESS (NUMBERS 19) TEXT Numbers 19:1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 2. This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke. 3. And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face: 4. And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times. 5. And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn: 6. And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet,

19:5 burn (c-4) burn. (c-23) Consume wholly. so ver. 17. See Exodus 29:34 ; Leviticus 4:12 ....