Numbers 19

19:1-22 This account considers the procedure by which ordinary Israelites defiled by contact with a corpse (see 9:4-12; Lev 17:15; 21:1-4, 11-12) could regain ceremonial purity and keep from defiling the Tabernacle. God’s holiness requires that the place where his presence dwells be kept pure and set apart from pollution (cp. 1 Cor 6:9-11, 18-20).19:1-10 The water for the purification ceremony (19:9), prepared with ashes of the red heifer, may have been the same as the water of purification in 8:7; see also 31:19-24. This ceremony required the ashes of a red heifer; the color probably represented blood (cp. Heb 9:13-14).

19:3-5 The need to safeguard Aaron’s consecrated status (see Lev 21:10-12) required that Eleazar perform the offering of the red heifer, since it caused ritual impurity. The ceremony of the red heifer contrasted with the regular sacrifice (cp. Lev 4:3-12).

19:6 The only other passage where a stick of cedar, a hyssop branch, and some scarlet yarn occur together is Lev 14, which describes another ceremony (also “outside the camp”) that brought about ceremonial purification. Some scholars suggest that Eleazar added cedarwood and hyssop to produce an aroma. Hyssop is associated with purification (Exod 12:22; Ps 51:7; cp. Heb 9:19), and the scarlet yarn, like the red heifer, probably symbolized blood. Taken together, the cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet symbolize cleansing.

19:7-10 Three people were needed to produce and collect the heifer’s ashes—Eleazar, the man who burned the animal, and the man who gathered its ashes. All three became ritually impure for a day because of this process. This was also true for the person who used the finished product, a potion made from the ash dust and water (cp. 19:21) that had the same defiling effect as blood associated with sacrifices (Lev 6:27-28).

19:9 The purpose of the ceremony of burning the red heifer was to produce ashes. These were collected and deposited in a purified place outside the camp until the Israelites needed them in the water for the purification ceremony to remove such defilement as coming into contact with a corpse (19:11-22).

19:11-19 Coming into contact with a human corpse produced ritual impurity for seven days (cp. Lev 21:1-3). The remedy was the water of purification, applied on the third and seventh days.

19:13 The impurity caused by contact with a corpse was especially dangerous since a ceremonially defiled person would defile the Lord’s Tabernacle (cp. Lev 15:31). This was grounds for being cut off from the community of Israel (cp. Num 9:13; Exod 12:15; Lev 7:20-21; 17:4-14; 20:17-18).

19:14-16 Death’s contagion could be transmitted to an object or to a place where death had occurred (cp. Lev 15:1-12).

19:17-22 To cleanse with the heifer’s ashes, a special purifying mixture was made by combining ashes from the burnt purification offering with fresh water (cp. 5:17).