Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter 19
The water of purification is described, made from the ashes of a burnt red heifer.
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2. This is the observance of the victim which the Lord hath ordained. Command the children of Israel, that they bring to thee a red cow of full age, in which there is no blemish, and which hath not carried the yoke: 3. And you shall deliver her to Eleazar the priest, who shall bring her forth without the camp, and shall immolate her in the sight of all: 4. And dipping his finger in her blood, shall sprinkle it over against the door of the tabernacle seven times: 5. And shall burn her in the sight of all, delivering up both her skin and flesh, and blood and dung to be burnt.
Verse 2.
being delivered to the flames. 6. And the priest shall cast cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet twice dyed, into the flame that consumeth the cow. 7. And then, his garments and body being washed, he shall enter into the camp, and shall be unclean until the evening. 8. He also that burnt her shall wash his garments and his body, and shall be unclean until the evening. 9. And a clean man shall gather up the ashes of the cow, and shall pour them forth without the camp in a most clean place, that they may be reserved for the multitude of the children of Israel, for a water of aspersion: because the cow was burnt for sin. 10. And when he that carried the ashes of the cow hath washed his garments, he shall be unclean until the evening. The children of Israel, and the strangers that dwell among them, shall have this for a holy ordinance for ever. 11. He that toucheth the corpse of a man, and is therefore unclean seven days, 12. shall be sprinkled with this water on the third day and on the seventh, and so shall be cleansed. If he was not sprinkled on the third day, he cannot be cleansed on the seventh. 13. Every one that toucheth the death of any man, and is not sprinkled with this mixture, shall defile the tabernacle of the Lord, and shall perish out of Israel: because he was not sprinkled with the water of expiation, he shall be unclean, and his uncleanness shall remain upon him. 14. This is the law of a man that dieth in a tent: All that go into his tent, and all the vessels that are there, shall be defiled seven days. 15. The vessel that hath no cover, nor binding over it, shall be unclean. 16. If any man in the field shall touch the corpse of one slain, or that died of himself, or his bone, or his grave, he shall be unclean seven days. 17. And they shall take of the ashes of the burning and of the sin, and shall put living waters upon them into a vessel: 18. and a man that is clean shall dip hyssop in them, and sprinkle therewith all the tent, and all the furniture, and the men that are defiled with such a touch: 19. and in this manner shall he that is clean purify the unclean on the third and seventh day: and being expiated the seventh day, he shall wash both himself and his garments, and shall be unclean until the evening. 20. If any man be not expiated after this rite, his soul shall perish out of the midst of the church: because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord, and was not sprinkled with the water of purification. 21. This shall be an ordinance for ever. He also that sprinkleth the waters shall wash his garments. Every one that shall touch the waters of expiation shall be unclean until the evening. 22. Whatsoever the unclean person shall touch, he shall make it unclean: and the soul that shall touch any of these things shall be unclean until the evening.
2. THIS IS THE OBSERVANCE (that is, the ceremony, or ceremonial law: for this the Hebrew חקה chukkah signifies) OF THE VICTIM—namely the expiatory victim, from whose ashes the water of purification was to be made.
THAT THEY BRING TO THEE A RED COW.—The red or blood-like colour is a symbol of sin, and this because the shedding of blood, or homicide, is the greatest sin; hence sins in Scripture are called bloods, and sinners are called men of blood.
The red cow, therefore, signified the sinner, guilty of blood and of death, and of burning in the fire of hell; for this cow was burnt, that by her ashes the unclean who had touched the dead might be purified and expiated; and here she was a type of the sinner, for the touching of a corpse signified the touching of sin.
OF FULL AGE (in Hebrew perfect, which our Interpreter fitly took of perfection of age, and consequently of stature and bulk; for the integrity of the body is expressed in the condition that follows, where it is said) IN WHICH THERE IS NO BLEMISH—namely no defect of body; for by this phrase is signified not a blemish of colour but of deformity, as is plain from Levit. xxi, 20.
AND WHICH HATH NOT CARRIED THE YOKE.—For it is not fitting that this victim, which is to serve God for the expiation of men, should have served man.
It is very likely that this cow was immolated not only in Chanaan but also in the desert, and this for the purification of lepers, of those with an issue of seed, and of women in their courses, but chiefly for the purification of the Levites and priests, who had to approach, touch and carry the tabernacle. For they could not do this if they were unclean; and there is no doubt that in the desert the Levites often contracted uncleanness, both from funerals and from other causes: by this victim, therefore, that is, by the waters of purification made from the ashes of this victim, they had to be expiated.
3. AND YOU SHALL DELIVER HER TO ELEAZAR THE PRIEST, WHO SHALL BRING HER FORTH WITHOUT THE CAMP, AND SHALL IMMOLATE HER—because this victim was not solemn and festive, so that Aaron the high priest should immolate her, but mournful and lustral; hence Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron, is commanded to immolate her. Moreover, he is commanded to immolate her outside the camp,
Verse 3.
because she was to be immolated for the sins of the whole people, so that she might be burnt entire to ashes, which would be expiatory, and, mixed with water, would make the water of expiation.
Hence this cow, as if about to take upon herself all the uncleannesses of the Hebrews, was reckoned very unclean; for the priest who immolated her was reckoned unclean until the evening, as was he who burnt her and he who gathered her ashes. Hence she is commanded to be immolated and burnt outside the camp; at the same time, that by this might be allegorically signified that Christ would suffer outside Jerusalem, as the Apostle says, Hebr. xiii, 12. The Septuagint renders it, “and they shall slay her before him,” namely Eleazar, as if Eleazar himself were not to immolate this cow, but others before him. But the Hebrew, the Chaldee and our own text signify that no other than Eleazar himself immolated this cow (1).
4. AND DIPPING HIS FINGER IN HER BLOOD, SHALL SPRINKLE IT OVER AGAINST THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE—that is, toward the entrance of the tabernacle, and from afar; for he who immolated this cow was not in the court or in the tabernacle so that he could touch it, but was outside the camp, and there, sprinkling the blood of the heifer immolated, he turned himself toward the eastern part of the tabernacle; and this, that by it might be signified that purification from sins is made to God, who was represented by the tabernacle as by a temple, and that we are bound to him by our uncleannesses and sins to punishment, and that by this victim satisfaction is as it were made to him, and men are discharged of this guilt before him. Hence it is plain that in the land of Chanaan the immolation and burning of this red cow ought to have been done in the place where the temple was, namely at Jerusalem, but outside the city: both because this immolation was a priestly function, which could not be done elsewhere than where the temple was; and because from the blood of this cow they had to sprinkle seven times toward the eastern part of the tabernacle or temple, and so could not be far from it in this immolation: so Abulensis.