Numbers 19:4 Kommentar

This chapter is only concerning the preparing and using of the ashes which were to impregnate the water of purification. The people had complained of the strictness of the law, which forbade their near approach to the tabernacle, Num 17:13. In answer to this complaint, they are here directed to purify themselves, so as that they might come as far as they had occasion without fear. Here is, I. The method of preparing these ashes, by the burning of a red heifer, with a great deal of ceremony (Num 19:1-10). II. The way of using them. 1. They were designed to purify persons from the pollution contracted by a dead body (Num 19:11-16). 2. They were to be put into running water (a small quantity of them), with which the person to be cleansed must be purified (Num 19:17-22). And that this ceremonial purification was a type and figure of the cleansing of the consciences of believers from the pollutions of sin appears by the apostle's discourse, Heb 9:13, Heb 9:14, where he compares the efficacy of the blood of Christ with the sanctifying virtue that was in "the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean."

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, Num 19:1; the use of the water made of them, to purify such as were unclean by the touch of a dead body, Num 19:11; some rules are given, by which it might be known who were unclean on account of a dead body, Num 19:14; the manner of purifying such persons, Num 19:17; and the punishment of those that should neglect purification, Num 19:20.

And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger,.... He took the blood in his left hand, and sprinkled it with the finger of his right hand, as Maimonides says (a); and so the Targum of Jonathan, which says, he did not receive it into a vessel, but into the palm of his hand, and from thence sprinkled it with his finger (b): which Ainsworth thinks signified the Spirit of Christ, our high priest, called "the finger of God", Luk 11:20; who takes the blood of Christ, and sprinkles it on the hearts of his people, whereby they are freed from an evil conscience: and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times; or "towards the tabernacle", so Noldius (c); as sprinkling of the blood was the principal action in sacrifices, this was to be done directly before the tabernacle, from whence its purifying virtue was expected, though it was not shed in it, that it might have all the appearance of a sacrifice it could have; and being done seven times, denotes the perfection of it: the priest, when he sprinkled, stood on the east side, with his face to the west. When the temple was built at Jerusalem, this affair was transacted on the mount of Olives, which was east of Jerusalem. Jarchi says, the priest stood in the east of Jerusalem, and placed himself so that he might see the door of the temple at the time of sprinkling the blood. Now it appears, as Maimonides says (d), that the floor of the temple was higher than the floor of the eastern gate of the mountain of the house twenty two cubits, and the height of the gate of the mountain of the house was twenty cubits; wherefore one that stood over against the eastern gate could not see the door of the temple, therefore they made the wall, which was over the top of this gate (the battlement of it), low, so that he (the priest), that stood on the mount of Olives, might see the door of the temple, at the time he sprinkled the blood of the cow over against the temple; otherwise he could only have seen the eighth step of the porch of the temple, as the same writer observes (e), with which agrees the Misnah (f), that all the walls there (about the mountain of the house) were high, except the eastern wall, that so the priest that burnt the cow might stand on the top of the mount of Olives, and look and behold the door of the temple, when he sprinkled the blood. (a) Hilchot Parah Adumah, c. 3. sect. 2. (b) Vid. Misn. Parah, c. 3. sect. 7. (c) P. 81. No. 379. (d) Hilchot Beth Habechirah, c. 6. sect. 2. (e) In Misn, Middot, c. 2. sect. 4. (f) Misn. ib.

Three cities of refuge to be appointed in the midst of the promised land; the land being divided into three parts, a city is to be placed in each, a proper way to which is to be prepared, Deu 19:1-3. In what cases of manslaughter the benefit of those cities may be claimed, Deu 19:4-6. Three cities more to be added should the Lord enlarge their coasts, and the reasons why, Deu 19:7-10. The intentional murderer shall have no benefit from these cities, Deu 19:11-13. The landmark is not to be shifted, Deu 19:14. One witness shall not be deemed sufficient to convict a man, Deu 19:15. How a false witness shall be dealt with - he shall bear the punishment which he designed should have been inflicted on his neighbor, Deu 19:16-20. Another command to establish the lex talionis, Deu 19:21.

THE WATER OF SEPARATION. (Num. 19:1-22) This is the ordinance of the law--an institution of a peculiar nature ordained by law for the purification of sin, and provided at the public expense because it was for the good of the whole community. Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, &c.--This is the only case in which the color of the victim is specified. It has been supposed the ordinance was designed in opposition to the superstitious notions of the Egyptians. That people never offered a vow but they sacrificed a red bull, the greatest care being taken by their priests in examining whether it possessed the requisite characteristics, and it was an annual offering to Typhon, their evil being. By the choice, both of the sex and the color, provision was made for eradicating from the minds of the Israelites a favorite Egyptian superstition regarding two objects of their animal worship.