Chapter 19The Red Heifer

Numbers

LESSON THREE

CHAPTER 19THE RED HEIFER

Numbers 19:1-22

19:1 Laws of Purification

Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 "This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying: 'Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come. 3 You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, that he may take it outside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before him; 4 and Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting. 5 Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight: its hide, its flesh, its blood, and its offal shall be burned. 6 And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet, and cast them into the midst of the fire burning the heifer.

19:7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, he shall bathe in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp; the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8 And the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, bathe in water, and shall be unclean until evening. 9 Then a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of purification; it is for purifying from sin.10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening. It shall be a statute forever to the children of Israel and to the stranger who dwells among them. 11'He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.

19:13Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; his uncleanness is still on him. 14'This is the law when a man dies in a tent: All who come into the tent and all who are in the tent shall be unclean seven days; 15 and every open vessel, which has no cover fastened on it, is unclean. 16 Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. 17'And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin, and running water shall be put on them in a vessel.

19:18A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, the slain, the dead, or a grave. 19 The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean. 20'But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. 21 It shall be a perpetual statute for them. He who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes; and he who touches the water of purification shall be unclean until evening. 22 Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.'" NKJV

CHAPTER NINETEEN

RED HEIFER

The corpse-decontamination ritual performed by Eleazar, Aaron’s son, involving the ashes of a red heifer (or cow) mixed with spring (“living”) water and sprinkled upon persons or objects to be purified is described in Numbers 19 and applied in Numbers 31:19-24 in the case of soldiers and captives returning from war. This ritual allowed a corpse-contaminated layperson to be restored to a state of purity, enabling full participation in the religious life of the community. Nazirites and priests required separate purification offerings for corpse contamination (cf. Numbers 6:9-12; Ezekiel 44:26-27).

1. Description of Ritual.

1.1. Animal Requirements. The cow had to be without blemishand, being dedicated to God, never previouslyyoked for profane use (Num. 19:2), evidently a young animal. “Red” presumably refers to the hair rather than the skin, although the latter has been suggested (cf. Brenner, 63). The exact shade of red and its significance is debated. A common interpretation is that red (Heb°¦dumma’) is the color of blood (Heb d¹m[“blood”], possibly cognate) and anticipates the ritual use of blood (Num. 19:4) essential for purification. Or red could anticipate its being burned in the reddish fire (Num. 19:5-6). The Mishnah, which dedicates tractates Parah and °Ohalot to the red heifer and corpse contamination, emphasizes the rareness of a totally red cow: “If it had two blackorwhite hairs [growing] from within a single hole, it is invalid” (m. Parah 2:5).

(1). Accordingly, certain modern Jews interested in restoration of sacrificial worship are attempting to breed pure red cows (Schemann).

(2). A. Brenner (64-65), on the other hand, argues that the color here is bay or reddish brown, a more common color. She discounts the rabbinic sophistry on black and white hairs and, due to the text’s silence, any symbolic connection with either blood or fire.

(3). Why then specify the color? Connecting the color with blood, symbolically adding more “blood” to the ashes (Milgrom 1990, 158), appears the more acceptableinterpretation.

(4). The crimson yarn and the (red) cedar (Num. 19:6) serve the same symbolic function (Milgrom 1981, 65), as well as adding bulk to the ashes. The blood in the ashes contains the cleansing power.

1.2. Nature of the Sacrifice. Is this a sacrifice or a profane slaughter, and if a sacrifice, what kind (Wright 1992, 3:115)? Milgrom argues that Num. 19:9 should be rendered, “It is a µa‰‰¹°t[i.e., a purification offering]” (cf. nrsv, reb). Many English versions regularly render “for removal of sin” orthe like (e.g., rsv, niv, nasb). The translation “sin” is problematic, since contamination by removing a corpse from a tent (Num. 19:14) involves no “sin.” Therefore the µa‰‰¹°toffering is better rendered “purification offering” rather than “sin offering.” Profane slaughter is problematic, since the ritual is supervised by Eleazar the priest. Part of the confusion lies in this µa‰‰¹°toffering being completely burned to ashes—skin, flesh, blood, dung—whereas elsewhere it is the ±œlâ(“burnt offering”) that is so burned. Moreover, unlike other sacrifices, it is slaughtered outside the camp (Num. 19:3) rather than at the altar.

1.3. Why a Female? Why does this ritual specify a female cow? Milgrom (1981, 65) plausibly suggests that a bull could not be used because that was the purification offering for the high priests (Lev 4:1-12; 16:11) orthecommunity (Lev 4:13-21) rather than individual Israelites.

1.4. How the Ashes Cleansed and Defiled. Like the Day of Atonementµa‰‰¹°toffering, any priest who handled itbecame unclean (Num. 19:7-10,21; cf. Lev 16:28), even as it purified its recipients, as if impurity being absorbed into the cow contaminated its handler (Milgrom 1990, 441). Touching or even being in the same room as a corpse (Num. 19:11,14), handling human bones (rearranging bones in a tomb was commonpractice) or touching a grave transmitted uncleanness.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

RED HEIFER

Being contaminated by war killings, the whole army (not just ones who actually touched corpses) and its war captives also required purification after battle (Num. 31:19-24). The purification ritual took seven days in which the purifying waters mixed with ashes were sprinkled onto the contaminated person, using hyssop branches on the third and seventh days (Num. 19:12,19; 31:19). Hyssop, associated with other purification rituals, was also considered a purifying agent, burnt and mixed with ashes of other purifying agents: the cow, the cedar and the scarlet thread (Num. 19:6).

Ritual cleansing applied also to objects contaminated by a corpse: unsealed vessels in the same room, the tent, and its furnishings (Num. 19:15,18), clothing, hides, goat’s hair, wooden objects (Num. 31:20). All that would not be destroyed was cleansed with fire (Num. 31:22-23), but the rest with the waters of purification. The ritual ended with washing clothes and bathing with water on the seventh day (Num. 19:19; 31:24). Those who refused to undergo the ritewere “cut off,” orexcommunicated, from the community and Yahweh’s sanctuary, which their uncleanness defiled (Num. 19:13,20).

Note: Yeshua [Jesus] became sin so that we may become righteous, the perfect type. Paul the Learner

Numbers 19:2-10

19:2-10. ritual of the red heifer. In order to create the mixture needed to cleanse a person who has become contaminated through contact with a corpse, the law requires that a red heifer without blemish that has never been yoked for labor be taken outside the camp and slaughtered by Eleazar, Aaron’s son. Eleazar does this because Aaron, the high priest, would have been contaminated by the carcass of the animal. Eleazarsprinkles some of its blood seven times on the tent of meetingandthen supervises the burning of the carcass, whilethrowing cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool on the fire. The ashes are kept outside the camp for later use in purification *rituals. These actions cause participants in the sacrifice to become unclean until evening, even though they bathe and wash their clothes. Comparison with *Hittite ritual corroborates that it is the ritual act, plus the ingredients concocted to purify persons, that causes a temporary *impurity by the priest.

(IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament)

Num 19:1

In order that a consciousness of the continuance of the covenant relation might be kept alive during the dying out of the race that had fallen under the judgment of God, after the severe stroke with which the Lord had visited the whole nation in consequence of the rebellion of the company of Korah, He gave the law concerning purification from the uncleanness of death, in which:

First of all the preparation of a sprinkling water is commanded for the removal of this uncleanness (vv. 1-10 a); and then,
Secondly, the use of this purifying water enjoined as an eternal statute (vv. 10 b-22).

The thought that death, and the putrefaction of death, as being the embodiment of sin, defiled and excludedfrom fellowship with the holy God, was a view of the fall and its consequences which had been handed down from the primeval age, and which was not only shared by the Israelites with many of the nations of antiquity,but presupposed by the laws given on Sinai as a truth well known in Israel; and at the same time confirmed, both in the prohibition of the priests from defiling themselves with the dead, except in the case of their nearest blood-relations (Lev 21:1-6,10-12), and in the command, that every one who was defiled by a corpse should be removed out of the camp (Num 5:2-4).

CHAPTER NINETEEN

19:1

Now, so long as the mortality within the congregation did not exceed the natural limits, the traditional modes of purification would be quite sufficient. But when it prevailed to a hitherto unheard-of extent, in consequence of the sentence pronounced by God, the defilements would necessarily be so crowded together, that the whole congregation would be in danger of being infected with the defilement of death, and of forfeiting its vocation to be the holy nation of Jehovah, unless God provided it with the means ofcleansing itself from this uncleanness, without losing the fellowship of His covenant of grace.

The law which follows furnished the means. In v. 2 this law is called hatowraah chuqat, a "statute ofinstruction," orlaw-statute. This combination of the two words commonly used for law and statute, which is only met with again in Num 31:21, and there, as here, in connection with a rule relating to purification from the uncleanness of death, is probably intended to give emphasis to the design of the law about to be given, to point it out as one of great importance, but not as decretum absque ulla ratione, a decree without any reason, as the Rabbins suppose. Keil and Delitzsch

The law set forth in this chapter belongs to the group of commandments dealt with in Leviticus Chapters12-15.

It provides for the removal of defilement resulting from contact with the dead. A red heifer, free from blemish and one that had not yet been broken to the yoke, was to be slainoutside the camp. It was then to be burned, cedar-wood, hyssop, and scarlet being cast upon the pyre. The gathered ashes, dissolved in fresh water, were to be sprinkled on those who had become contaminated through contact with a dead body.This ordinance is the most mysterious rite in Scripture, the strange features of which are duly enumerated by the Rabbis. Thus, its aim was to purify the defiled, and yet it defiled all those who were in any way connected with the preparation of the ashes and water of purification. ‘It purifies the impure, and at the same time renders impure the pure!’So inscrutable was its nature - they said - that even King Solomon in his wisdom despaired of learning thesecret meaning of the Red Heifer regulations.

THE ANSWER

1. 2 Corinthians 5:21………………….The undefiled preparing the sacrifice.

2. Romans 8:3…………………………The sacrifice itself (sinful flesh).

3. John 1:29……………………………The results of the sacrifice applied to the sinner.

2 Corinthians 5:21

21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.(KJV)

Romans 8:3

3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:(KJV)

John 1:29

29The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.(KJV)

Jesus the undefiled prepared a sacrifice himself and by so doing He became defiled by our sin and through that sacrifice of Jesus we who were sinners became clean. And He was slain outside the camp[Jerusalem]. Thus fulfilling this type. Paul the Learner

CHAPTER NINETEEN

In brief, the attitude of Judaism as to the meaning of this law is not merely a confession of ignorance, but the realizations that we shall never know why such defilement should be removed in that specified manner.

Ignorabimus

Nevertheless there have been many attempts of explanation, at any rate of symbolization, of this law both by Jews and non-Jews. One of them is:

1. The majestic cedar of Lebanon represents pride.

2. And hyssop represents humility.

3. Uncleanness and sin and death are all associated ideas.

The ceremony, therefore, is a powerful object-lesson, teaching the eternal truth that a holy God can beserved only by a holy People. Rabbi Hertz

THE BLINDNESS OF ISRAEL

Romans 11:25

25For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.(KJV)

19:2STATUTE OF THE LAW

The word ‘statute’ is used in connection with all laws and ordinances whose reason is not disclosed to us. ‘It is a decree from before Me, and you are not at liberty to cavil at My decrees’ Rashi

19:2RED HEIFER

The Hebrew word here is parah adumah; a young cow, not a calf or a full-grown cow. The early Jewish conception was that the sacrifice of the red heifer was an expiatory rite to atone for the sin of the GoldenCalf. Rabbi Hertz

19:2FAULTLESS

Faultlessly red; two hairs of another colour on its body were sufficient to disqualify it.Rabbi Hertz

19:2UPON WHICH NEVER CAME YOKE

A ‘virgin’ animal in the sense of never having been used for secular purposes.Rabbi Hertz

19:1-22: Ritual of purification with the ashes of a red cow.

Contamination through contact with a corpse, or any part thereof, whether by actual touch or through proximity in an enclosed space, is considered a severe impurity (cf. 5:1-4) requiring a complex purification process. While impurities in general are discussed elsewhere (Leviticus chapters 11-15), the process of erasing corpse pollution is delineated only here (and briefly in 31:19-24 in connection with combat). Contaminated persons or objects must be cleansed lest they communicate their contagious state to other humans or objects within the camp and ultimately defile the sanctuary.