Numbers 19:2-12

2 "This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying: `Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish and upon which never came a yoke.
3 And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth outside the camp, and one shall slay her before his face.
4 And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times.
5 And one shall burn the heifer in his sight: her skin and her flesh and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn.
6 And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water; and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.
8 And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.
9 And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up outside the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.
10 And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. And it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger who sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.
11 "`He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
12 He shall purify himself with the water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

Numbers 19:2-12 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.

Third Millennium Bible (TMB), New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.