Numbers 19:1-6

1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

2 “Here is another legal requirement commanded by the LORD : Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer, a perfect animal that has no defects and has never been yoked to a plow.

3 Give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

4 Eleazar will take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tabernacle.

5 As Eleazar watches, the heifer must be burned—its hide, meat, blood, and dung.

6 Eleazar the priest must then take a stick of cedar, a hyssop branch, and some scarlet yarn and throw them into the fire where the heifer is burning.

Numbers 19:1-6 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew the Tent of Meeting.
• [b]. Or juniper.