Numbers 19 Study Notes

19:11-22 Ritual impurity from exposure to the dead required a “sin offering” that was actually a purification. Failure to perform the symbolic cleansings on the third and seventh days resulted in banishment from the community or death. Contamination could result from several situations: (1) being in or entering a tent where someone had just died, (2) contact with the dead in battle or by accidental proximity, or (3) contact with a grave or its remains. The seven-day period of the impurity was the maximum length for persons who had become unclean through a variety of serious diseases. Other forms of impurity, such as contact with the red cow, rendered a person impure only until sundown.

19:13 The severity of the impurity resulting from touching a corpse is evidenced in the ritual washings administered on the third and seventh days, the potential of defiling the sanctuary from a distance if left unpurified, and the potential penalty of (Hb) karath—being cut off from the community.

19:21 In future generations (this is a permanent statute for them) this purification offering and ritual would be a common purification offering, not only because of the exposure to corpses, but because it was considered acceptable for cleansing other forms of impurity. It often functioned as an instant sin offering in the second temple rituals. In his presentation of the person and work of Jesus Christ as superior to OT ceremonies, the writer of the book of Hebrews combined the ritual of the ashes of the red cow with that of the Day of Atonement in demonstrating the once-and-for-all sufficiency of the blood of Christ in cleansing us from all our sins (Heb 9:11-14).