Numbers 19:1-9

Ordinance of the Red Heifer

1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

2 "This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an ¹unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and ²on which a yoke has never been placed.

3 'You shall give it to ³Eleazar the priest, and it shall ⁴be brought outside * * the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.

4 'Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and ⁵sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

5 'Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; ⁶its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned.

6 'The priest shall take ⁷cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer.

7 'The priest ⁸shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.

8 'The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening.

9 'Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside * the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as ⁹water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin.

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Numbers 19:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 19

This chapter contains a law for making a water for purification for sin, the ingredients of which are the ashes of a red heifer burnt, about which many things are observed, Nu 19:1-10; the use of the water made of them, to purify such as were unclean by the touch of a dead body, Nu 19:11-13; some rules are given, by which it might be known who were unclean on account of a dead body, Nu 19:14-16; the manner of purifying such persons, Nu 19:17-19; and the punishment of those that should neglect purification, Nu 19:20-22.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 9

1. Leviticus 22:20-25
2. Deuteronomy 21:3
3. Numbers 3:4
4. Lev 4:11, 12, 21; Numbers 19:9
5. Leviticus 4:6, 17; Leviticus 16:14
6. Exodus 29:14; Leviticus 4:11, 12
7. Leviticus 14:4
8. Leviticus 16:26, 28; Leviticus 22:6
9. Numbers 8:7; Numbers 31:23

Footnotes 6

[a]. Lit "come up"
[b]. Lit "burning of the heifer"
[c]. Lit "flesh"
[d]. Lit "flesh"
[e]. Lit "it shall be to the congregation...Israel, for a guarding as water of impurity"
[f]. Or "a sin offering"