Numbers 19:1-7

1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

2 This is a statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which no yoke has been laid.

3 You shall give it to the priest Eleazar, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

4 The priest Eleazar shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times towards the front of the tent of meeting.

5 Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned.

6 The priest shall take cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson material, and throw them into the fire in which the heifer is burning.

7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterwards he may come into the camp; but the priest shall remain unclean until evening.

Numbers 19:1-7 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.