Numbers 19:1-22 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 19:1-10

We have here the divine appointment concerning the solemn burning of a red heifer to ashes, and the preserving of the ashes, that of them might be made, not a beautifying, but a purifying, water, for that was the utmost the law reached to; it offered not to adorn as the gospel does, but to cleanse only. This burning of the heifer, though it was not properly a sacrifice of expiation, being not performed at the altar, yet was typical of the death and sufferings of Christ, by which he intended,... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 19:11-22

Directions are here given concerning the use and application of the ashes which were prepared for purification. they were laid up to be laid out; and therefore, though now one place would serve to keep them in, while all Israel lay so closely encamped, yet it is probable that afterwards, when they came to Canaan, some of these ashes were kept in every town, for there would be daily use for them. Observe, I. In what cases there needed a purification with these ashes. No other is mentioned here... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 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, Numbers 5:2 ; and mention is made of the "water of purifying", Numbers 8:7 , saying ; as... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:2

This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded ,.... By which it appears, that this law was not of the moral, but of the ceremonial kind, being called an ordinance, a statute, a decree of God, the King of kings; and which was founded not on any clear plain reason in the thing itself, but in the will of God, who intended it as a type and shadow of the blood and sacrifice of Christ, and of the efficacy of that to cleanse from sin; and it also appears by this, that it was not... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:3

And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest ,.... The son of Aaron; the Sagan of the priests, as the Targum of Jonathan calls him, the second or deputy priest; it was not to be given to Aaron, that he might not be defiled, though but for a small time, that so he might not be hindered in his office at all; but to Eleazar, to inure him to his office, and to confirm him in it: that he may bring her forth without the camp ; without the camp of Israel; Jarchi says, without the three camps,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:4

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 F1 Hilchot Parah Adumah, c. 3. sect. 2. ; 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 F2 Vid. Misn. Parah, c. 3. sect. 7. : which Ainsworth thinks signified the Spirit of Christ, our high priest,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:5

And one shall burn the heifer in his sight ,.... Another priest, as the Targum of Jonathan, Eleazar looking on, as that expresses it; the Jews say F7 Misn. Parah, c. 3. sect. 7,8,9. , that when the priest came to the mount of Olives, accompanied by the elders of Israel, before he burnt the cow, he dipped himself in a dipping place there; and the wood being laid there in order, wood of cedar, ash, fir, and fig trees, made in the form of a tower, with holes opened in it (to put in the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:6

And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet ,.... Another priest, according to the Targum of Jonathan; but it seems to design Eleazar the priest, and so, in later times, the same priest that burnt the cow took these things; the Jews say F8 Misn. Parah, c. 3. sect. 10. , when he took them he said, is this cedar wood? is this hyssop? is this scarlet? so he said three times for everyone of them, and he was answered, yes, three times to each of them: these were the same... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:7

Then the priest shall wash his clothes ,.... The Targum of Jonathan has it,"he that slew the cow,'and Aben Ezra, the priest that burnt it; but it seems to mean Eleazar, the priest that sprinkled the blood, and by touching that was defiled and needed washing; and so the Jews F12 Misn. Parah, c. 4. sect. 4. say, all that were employed about it, from the beginning to the end, were defiled in their garments; not only he that slew it, and burnt it, and sprinkled its blood, but he that took... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:8

And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water ,.... In forty seahs of water, as the Targum of Jonathan: this shows that one different from this is designed in Numbers 19:7 ; and that this is one distinct from him that sprinkled the blood, Numbers 19:4 , and bathe his flesh in water : in a like quantity, as the above Targum: and shall be unclean until the even : and, though washed, might not go into the camp until that time: this may signify, as before, that though the... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 19:1-10

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 19:11-22

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:1

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:2

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:3

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:4

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:5

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:6

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:7

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 19:8

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