And a man [that is] clean shall gather up the ashes of
the
heifer
A man, a clean priest, as the Targum of Jonathan; in later times
great care was taken that the priest concerned in the burning of
the red cow should be pure; he was separated from his own house
seven days before the time, and every day he was sprinkled with
the blood of all sin offerings then offered, that it might be
sure he was free from any pollution by a grave, or a dead body;
and for the same reason they made a causeway on double arches
from the temple to the mount of Olives, over the valley of
Kidron, lest any unseen grave should be in the way; and when he
came thither he was obliged to wash or dip himself, as before
observed F13; and so he that gathered up the
ashes was to be clean from all ceremonial pollution: the Jews say
F14, that they pounded the ashes; if
there were any black coal in them or bone, they did not leave it
in them, but sifted them in stone sieves; and not the ashes of
the heifer only they took, but the ashes of the cedar wood mixed
with them; and these they put, as the Targum of Jonathan says,
into an earthen vessel enclosed in a covering of clay:
and lay [them] up without the camp in a clean
place;
they were divided into three parts, according to the Targum of
Jonathan, one part was put in the Chel (or the enclosure of the
court of the tabernacle), another in the mount of Olives, and the
third part was divided among all the wards of the Levites, with
which the Misnah F15 agrees; Jarchi makes mention of the
same division, and of the use of each; that the wards had was
without the court, that the citizens might take of it, and all
that needed to be purified; that in the mount of Olives was for
the priests, to sanctify other heifers with it; and that in the
Chel was for a reserve:
and it shall be kept [for a reserve] for the congregation
of Israel;
as ashes may be kept a long time, if well taken care of, because
they are not subject to any corruption or putrefaction; and so
was, as Bishop Patrick observes from Dr. Jackson, a figure of the
everlasting efficacy of Christ's blood: and, according to the
Jews, these ashes of the first heifer must last more than a
thousand years; for they say F16 the second that was burnt
was in the time of Ezra, though they reckon seven more afterwards
before the destruction of the second temple, in all nine; and the
tenth they expect in the days of the Messiah, which are past; he,
being come, has put an end to this type by fulfilling it in
himself: and the use of them was
for a water of separation;
being put into water, and mixed with it, was for the cleansing of
such as were separated from others for their uncleanness, and was
a purification of them for it, as follows:
it [is] a purification for sin:
or "it [is] sin" F17, not an offering for sin, properly
speaking; the heifer, whose ashes they were, not being sacrificed
in the tabernacle, nor on the altar, and wanted other rites; yet
it answered the purposes of a sin offering, and its ashes in
water were typical of the blood of Christ, which purges the
conscience from dead works, when this only purified to the
sanctifying of the flesh, ( Hebrews 9:13
Hebrews
9:14 ) ; and is the fountain set open for sin and
uncleanness, ( Zechariah
13:1 ) ; where both the words are used which are here, and in
the preceding clause: ashes are known to be of a cleansing
nature, and so a fit emblem of spiritual purification by Christ;
and the duration of them of the perpetuity of it.