Purification by the ashes of a red cow

The chapter is an isolated section of priestly writing, having no connexion with the narrative of Korah and the privileges of priests and Levites (16–18), nor with the following narrative of the events at Kadesh (20). The regulations fall into two parts: (1) Numbers 19:1-13. The ingredients and effects of the purifying water in cases of pollution arising from contact with a dead body. (2) Numbers 19:14-22. An expanded, and stricter, form of Numbers 19:11-13, probably by a different hand.

The principle that contact with the dead causes pollution is primitive and wide-spread. Gray (Numb. 243 f.) gives instances from America, Africa, and Asia, and from ancient Greece and Rome. The particular method enjoined in this chapter for removing the pollution, though the chapter in its present form is the work of P , must have been based upon primitive usage. A red cow, which has no blemish and which has never been yoked, is to be brought to Eleazar and then led outside the camp and killed (Numbers 19:2-3). Eleazar is to sprinkle some of the blood seven times in the direction of the front (the Eastern end) of the Tent (Numbers 19:4); in his sight the cow, with all its parts complete, is to be burnt (Numbers 19:5); and upon the burning carcase he is to throw cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet thread (Numbers 19:6). The ashes mixed with water are to be used as the ‘water of impurity’ (Numbers 19:9), with which are to be sprinkled any persons who incur pollution by contact with the dead (Numbers 19:11-13). This law is referred to in Numbers 31:19-24; and in Hebrews 9:13 f. a contrast is drawn between ‘the ashes of an heifer’ which purify the flesh, and the blood of Christ which purifies the conscience from ‘dead works.’ The use of the ‘water of impurity’ was not universal in Israel, for cases of pollution by the dead are dealt with by other means; see Leviticus 5:2; Leviticus 5:5-13 (unwitting contact with a dead animal), Numbers 11:24-28 (contact with the carcase of an unclean animal), Numbers 22:4-6 (the pollution of a priest who touches anything that is already polluted by the dead), Numbers 6:6-12 (the pollution of a Nazirite by touching the dead).

2. a red heifer] a red cow. The Heb. word is that ordinarily used for the full-grown animal (e.g. Genesis 41:2-4; 1 Samuel 6:7). The reason for the particular colour is not known. The red animal and the scarlet thread may both, perhaps, have had reference to blood as an instrument of purification.

without spot] perfect. Any blemish, such as lameness, blindness, or the malformation of a limb, would disqualify it.

3. and one shall bring her forth] Probably the person who is to kill her; not Eleazar.

6. cedar wood, and hyssop] The former, perhaps, for its durability, the latter for its cleansing qualities. It is doubtful, however, if ‘hyssop’ is the true rendering of the Heb. ’çzôbh, since the hyssop is not native to Palestine. The ‘cape’ and the ‘marjoram’ have been suggested.

In the purification of the leper the same objects are employed, but with a different purpose. The cedar wood and ’çzôbh, bound together by a scarlet thread, formed an instrument for sprinkling blood upon the recovered leper and his house (Leviticus 14:4; Leviticus 14:6; Leviticus 14:49; Leviticus 14:51). See Numbers 19:18 below.

9. it shall be kept] i.e. the ashes, for which the Heb. word is singular, not plural.

a water of impurity] i.e. a water for the removal of impurity. Cf. ‘water of sin’ (Numbers 8:7). The word niddâh, ‘impurity,’ signifies something loathsome or abominable.

it is a sin-offering] The cow (not the water) could be called a sin-offering because it was burnt; but, since the ashes are the object of chief importance, the word hattâ’th (‘sin-offering’) must be understood in the more general sense of ‘something which removes sin.’ LXX. ἅγνισμα.

12. therewith] with the ‘water of impurity.’

It is clear that the writer of Numbers 19:19 understood the sprinkling to have been performed twice. But in this verse, according to R.V. , it is performed only on the third day. R.V. marg. is probably, therefore, to be preferred in both its renderings; and the verse means that the polluted man must purify himself on the third day and the seventh day; he shall be clean in that case, but not otherwise.

14–22. A second use of the ‘water of impurity.’

Mere presence under the same roof as the dead, without actual contact, causes defilement.

16. or a grave] The thought of defilement from unwitting contact with a grave underlies our Lord’s denunciation of the Pharisees in Luke 11:44.

17. the sin-offering] The word is used in the same sense as in Numbers 19:9.

running water] Water fresh from a running stream. This is more explicit than the former account, in which (Numbers 19:9) the mixing of water with the ashes is taken for granted.

18. The ’çzôbh (‘hyssop’) is not mentioned in this section as being burnt; it is here used as an instrument for sprinkling: see Numbers 19:6.

19. he shall wash his clothes &c.] The defiled person must do this after having been sprinkled. This is absent from the law in Numbers 19:12.

21. The man who sprinkles the sacred water becomes ‘unclean’; and in the next clause it is stated more generally that the man who touches it becomes unclean. The uncleanness in this case is slight; it lasts until the evening and can be removed by simply washing the clothes. Gray cites a Buddhist parallel from Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East, ii. 250. A close connexion existed in the Semitic mind between ‘uncleanness’ and ‘holiness.’ ‘Holiness’ or ‘sacredness’ was a contagious quality which debarred its possessor from ordinary intercourse with others until the contagion had been removed. Inanimate objects could also receive the contagion: see on Numbers 16:37.