Numberschapter 19
22 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
It stands in A red heifer burned outside the camp, verses 1 to 10.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The red heifer. A heifer without blemish, whereon never came yoke; slain outside the camp; her blood sprinkled before the tabernacle; the whole animal burned. With cedar, hyssop, and scarlet. And her ashes gathered and kept in a clean place. Mixed with running water, the ashes cleanse the one defiled by a dead body. Anyone who touches a corpse is unclean seven days; the water of purification sprinkled on the third and seventh day cleanses. The chapter supplies a regular cleansing for the most common defilement in the camp. Hebrews 9:13–14 contrasts the ashes of a heifer with the blood of Christ. How much more.
Context
Law · Moses · Numbers overview
The world behind this chapter
Numbers 19The history
The law is given to Moses and Aaron together, which is the form the book uses for the priestly statutes. Aaron was high priest at the time, and the chapter hands the work to his son Eleazar rather than to him.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
No date is attached. The chapter stands after Korah and before the return to Kadesh, and John Gill reports Abraham ibn Ezra placing the instruction back at Sinai beside the law of Numbers 5:2. The place in the book is certain and the year is not.
The setting is the camp in the wilderness of Paran and the open ground outside it. Everything in the rite happens outside the camp, from the killing of the cow to the store of ash.
The occasion is the arithmetic of the sentence passed at Kadesh. A camp of that size, condemned to bury an entire generation, needed a remedy for corpse defilement that was cheap, portable and always in stock.
A first hearer knew what corpse uncleanness cost him. Seven days outside the life of the camp, a tent and everything open in it made unclean along with him, and a priest or Levite barred from service for the week. He also knew that a sacrificial animal was normally male and that its blood normally went to the altar, so a red female burned whole outside the camp was a departure he would have noticed.
He knew what the three things thrown into the fire were for, since cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool are the same three used at the cleansing of a leper in Leviticus 14. And he knew that graves were marked, because unmarked ground was how a man picked up defilement without knowing it.
What it meant to them
For a nation walking toward its own graves this was the mercy that kept grief from becoming permanent exclusion. A man could bury his father and be back at the tent of meeting inside a week.
It also left them with a picture they could not put down. Something had to be taken outside the camp and burned so that the people inside could be clean, and whoever handled that cleansing carried the uncleanness himself.
Sources cited
- Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1 to 16 (Anchor Bible)
- The Mishnah , tractate Parah (Danby translation)
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament , 1748 to 1763, on Numbers 19:1
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible , 1871, on Numbers 19:2
Where the chapter sits
Numbers 19 falls in Wilderness rebellions and instruction (chapters 15–20). Korah's rebellion; Aaron's rod that budded; waters of Meribah; Moses' striking of the rock.
Before it: From Sinai to Kadesh, chapters 11–14. After it: Approach to Moab, chapters 21–25.
The whole shape of Numbers→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. A red heifer burned outside the camp
1. (vv. 1-2)
Numbers 19:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron,.... Not at this time, after the business of the spies, and the affair of Korah, but before the children of Israel departed from Sinai; and so Aben Ezra observes, that this was spoken in the wilderness of Sinai, when the Lord commanded to put unclean persons out of the camp, and when some were defiled with a dead body, and unfit for the passover, Num 5:2; and mention is made of the "water of purifying", Num 8:7, saying; as follows.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Numbers 19:1
“The principle that death and all pertaining to it, as being the manifestation and result of sin Gen 2:17, are defiling, and so lead to interruption of the living relationship between God and His people, is not now introduced for the first time, nor is it at all peculiar to the Mosaic law.”
Numbers 19:2
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 19:2
“And it must be one on which never came yoke, which was not insisted on in other sacrifices, but thus was typified the voluntary offer of the Lord Jesus, when he said, Lo, I come, He was bound and held with no other cords than those of his own love.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The victim is female, red, and one that has never worn a yoke, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that this is the only sacrifice in the law whose colour is prescribed. Clarke notes that the people at large bring her, since the rite is provided for the whole community rather than for one man's offence. Verse 2 calls it the ordinance of the law and then gives no reason for a single detail of it, and Rashi's note on this verse takes the word rendered ordinance as marking a decree issued without its ground. Gill reports Aben Ezra placing the instruction back at Sinai beside Numbers 5:2 and the water of purifying at 8:7, while the chapter as it stands follows Korah.
2. (vv. 3-4)
Numbers 19:3
“The work would necessarily require a priest; yet as it rendered him unclean for the day Num 19:22, the high priest was relieved from performing it. Without the camp - The defilement was viewed as transferred to the victim that was to be offered for its removal. Under these circumstances the victim, like the defiled persons themselves, would be removed outside the camp. The particular pollution to be remedied by this ordinance was the indirect one resulting from contact with tokens and manifestations of sin, not the direct and personal one arising from actual commission of sin.”
Numbers 19:4
“This made it in some sort an expiation; for the sprinkling of the blood before the Lord was the chief solemnity in all the sacrifices of atonement; therefore, though this was not done at the altar, yet, being done towards the sanctuary, it was intimated that the virtue and validity of it depended upon the sanctuary, and were derived from it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 19:4
“Before the tabernacle - Or, towards the tabernacle, standing at a good distance from it, even without the camp, yet turning and looking towards it. For here is no intimation that he went into the camp before this work was done, but rather the contrary is implied, ver.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The heifer is handed to Eleazar rather than to Aaron, and Barnes gives the reason that the work defiles the man who performs it, which the high priest could not carry. She is killed outside the camp and burned there, and Hebrews 13:11-13 takes up that pattern when it says Jesus suffered without the gate. Her blood never reaches the altar. Eleazar sprinkles it seven times toward the front of the tent from where he stands, and Henry reads that sprinkling toward the sanctuary as the thing that gives the rite its standing.
3. (vv. 5-6)
Numbers 19:5
“And one shall burn the heifer in his sight,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 19:5
“This typified the extreme sufferings of our Lord Jesus, both in soul and body, as a sacrifice made by fire. The priest was to cast into the fire, while it was burning, cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet, which were used in the cleansing of lepers ( Lev. xiv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 19:6
“And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet,....”
She is burned entire, skin and flesh and dung, and the text adds her blood to the list, which Leviticus 4:11-12 does not say of the sin offering burned outside the camp. Cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet go into the fire with her, the same three used at the cleansing of a leper in Leviticus 14:4-6 and on the leprous house at 14:49-52. Everything the rite will later use ends up in the ash, so one animal is reduced to a substance that keeps and travels.
4. (vv. 7-8)
Numbers 19:7
“Shall be unclean - Partly to teach us the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood, in which the priest himself was defiled by some parts of his work, and partly to shew that Christ himself, though he had no sin of his own, yet was reputed by men, and judged by God, as a sinful person, by reason of our sins which were laid upon him.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The priest who has just made the means of cleansing washes his clothes, bathes, and stays unclean until evening, and so does the man who burned her. Henry states the reversal plainly, that they were themselves unclean, as if the pollution laid upon them continued to cleave to them. Wesley in his Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament reads it of the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood, where the priest is defiled by his own work. The chapter builds the reversal into the rite and offers no account of why the clean are made unclean in the making of a cleansing.
5. (vv. 9-10)
Numbers 19:9
“For a water - Or, to the water, that is, to be put to the water, or mixed with it. Of separation - Appointed for the cleansing of them that are in a state of separation, who for their uncleanness are separated from the congregation. It is a purification for sin - Hebrew. a sin, that is, an offering for sin, or rather a mean for expiation or cleansing of sin.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 19:9
Water of separation - In Num 8:7, the water of purification from sin is the “water of purifying.” So that which was to remedy a state of legal separation is here called “water of separation.”
Numbers 19:9
“And again: "The water of sprinkling is a purification." Whence it appears that the sprinkling also of water prevails equally with the washing of salvation; and that when this is done in the Church, where the faith both of receiver and giver is sound, all things hold and may be consummated and perfected by the majesty of the Lord and by the truth of faith.”
Cyprian· written before 258· Epistle LXXV.12patristic
Numbers 19:10
“He that gathered the ashes became equally unclean with the others. For the defilement of the people, previously transferred to the heifer, was regarded as concentrated in the ashes.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 19:10
“But (says bishop Patrick) it is not strange to those who consider that all the sacrifices which were offered for sin were therefore looked upon as impure, because the sins of men were laid upon them, as all our sins were upon Christ, who therefore is said to be made sin for us, 2 Cor. v. 21 .”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A clean man gathers the ash and lays it up outside the camp in a clean place, kept for the congregation, so one animal supplies a nation for years at a time. Hebrews 9:13 names this by name when it speaks of the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, which puts the link to Christ in the New Testament's own words rather than in a reading laid on the text. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown pass on the report of Jewish writers that a heifer was burned yearly, while the Mishnah tractate Parah, compiled about AD 200, preserves a dispute over whether seven or nine were ever burned from Moses onward. The gatherer is defiled like the rest, and the statute binds the stranger living among them as much as the Israelite.
B. Whoever touches a dead body
1. (vv. 11-12)
Numbers 19:11
“One practical effect of attaching defilement to a dead body, and to all that touched it, etc., would be to insure early burial, and to correct a practice not uncommon in the East, of leaving the deal to be devoured by the wild beasts.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 19:11
“To afford the necessary supply of the cleansing mixture, the Jewish writers say that a red heifer was sacrificed every year, and that the ashes, mingled with the sprinkling ingredients, were distributed through all the cities and towns of Israel.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 19:12
“He shall purify himself with it - יתחטא בו yithchatta bo, literally, he shall sin himself with it. This Hebrew form of speech is common enough among us in other matters. Thus to fleece, to bark, and to skin, do not signify to add a fleece, another bark, or a skin, but to take one away; therefore, to sin himself, in the Hebrew idiom, is not to add sin, but to take it away, to purify. The verb חטא chata signifies to miss the mark, to sin, to purify from sin, and to make a sin-offering.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Touching a dead body puts a man outside the camp life for seven days, and Barnes points at one practical effect, that bodies were buried early rather than left in the open for the beasts. The remedy runs on a clock, sprinkling on the third day and on the seventh, and the man who misses the third is still unclean on the seventh. Clarke works the Hebrew of purify himself, yithchatta bo, literally he shall sin himself with it, since the verb behind sin also carries the sense of removing sin and of making a sin offering.
2. (v. 13)
Numbers 19:13
“Whosoever toucheth - If this transgression be done presumptuously; for if it was done ignorantly, he was only to offer sacrifice. Defiled -By approaching to it in his uncleanness: for holy things or places were ceremonially defiled with the touch of any unclean person or thing.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 19:13
“Every one knowingly and presumptuously neglecting to have himself sprinkled with this water was guilty of an offense which was punished by excommunication.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 19:13-14
A man who leaves himself unpurified defiles the tabernacle without going near it, and the sentence on him is to be cut off from Israel. The reason given is the omission itself, because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him. Verse 14 widens the defilement to a whole tent when a man dies in it, taking in everyone who comes through the door and everything already inside. A priest or a Levite who touched a corpse was barred from service for a week, which is why readers of Luke 10:31-32 have long set this law beside the two men who pass by on the far side of the man left half dead.
C. Ashes, running water, and a sprig of hyssop
1. (v. 14)
Numbers 19:14
“This is the law when a man dieth in a tent,....”
2. (vv. 15-16)
Numbers 19:15
“And every open vessel,.... An earthen one, as the Targum of Jonathan; and so Jarchi interprets it; and Maimonides (r) observes, that this is only to be understood of an earthen vessel: which hath no covering bound upon it; a linen or a woollen cloth wrapped and tied about it: is unclean; the air of the house getting into it by its being uncovered. (r) In Misn. Cholin, c. 1. sect. 6.”
Numbers 19:16
“And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields,....”
An open vessel with no covering bound on it is unclean, and Gill records the older Jewish reading, in the Targum of Jonathan, in Rashi and in Maimonides, that this holds of earthen vessels, which soak up what touches them and are broken rather than scoured at Leviticus 11:33. Verse 16 gives the reach of the law in open country, a man slain with a sword, a dead body, a bone, or a grave. Marking graves followed from this, so that no one picked up defilement unawares, and Luke 11:44 turns the practice into a charge when Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.
3. (vv. 17-18)
Numbers 19:17
“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. ix. 13, 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." The Ashes of Purification.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 19:18
“In allusion to this application of the water of separation by sprinkling, the blood of Christ is said to be the blood of sprinkling ( Heb. xii. 24 ), and with it were are said to be sprinkled from an evil conscience ( Heb. x. 22 ), that is, we are freed from the uneasiness that arises from a sense of our guilt.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ashes from the burnt heifer go into a vessel and running water is poured on them, water taken living from a spring or a stream rather than standing water out of a cistern. A clean person takes hyssop to sprinkle it, the same plant that carried the blood to the doorposts at Exodus 12:22 and the one David asks for at Psalm 51:7. What is sprinkled is the tent, the vessels and the people, so the house is treated along with the man who was in it.
4. (vv. 19-20)
Numbers 19:19
“And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean,....”
Numbers 19:20
“But the man that shall be unclean,.... By touching any dead body, bone, or grave: and shall not purify himself; with the water of purification: that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation: See Gill on Num 19:13. because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord: by going into it in his uncleanness: the water of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him, he is unclean; and will remain so, for nothing else could purify him, see Num 19:13.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 19:20
“A slight wound, if neglected, may prove fatal; a sin we call little, if not repented of, will be our ruin, when great sinners that repent shall find mercy. Our uncleanness separates us from God, but it is our being unclean and not purifying ourselves that will separate us for ever from him: it is not the wound that is fatal, so much as the contempt of the remedy.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
No priest appears in this half of the rite. Any clean person sprinkles on the third day and the seventh, and the unclean man then washes his clothes, bathes himself, and is clean at evening. The man who refuses is cut off, and the charge laid against him is the neglect rather than the original contact, since the water stood ready and he would not have it. Henry puts it as the wound not being fatal so much as the contempt of the remedy.
5. (vv. 21-22)
Numbers 19:21
“One important lesson, however, was thus taught, that its purifying efficacy was not inherent in itself, but arose from the divine appointment, as in other ordinances of religion, which are effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in him that administers them, but solely through the grace of God communicated thereby.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 19:22
“The unclean person - Not he who is so only by touching the water of separation, ver. 21, but he who is so by the greater sort of uncleanness, which lasted seven days, and which was not removed without the use of this water of purification.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The statute is made perpetual with the reversal written into it, since the man who sprinkles the water washes his clothes afterward and the man who touches it is unclean until evening. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that the purifying power sits in the divine appointment rather than in the mixture. Verse 22 states the traffic of defilement in one direction, that whatever the unclean man touches becomes unclean. Haggai 2:11-13 puts that very question to the priests and gets the same answer, that holy flesh does not make other things holy by contact while a man defiled by a dead body makes what he touches unclean.
This page carries no textual note on Numbers 19. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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