Numbers, Chapter 19

Numbers Chapter 19

Verses 1-22: The Laws of Purification

1. The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
2. “This is a statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelite people to bring you a red cow without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come.
3. You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
4. Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
5. The cow shall then be burned in his sight; its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned.
6. The priest shall take cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet material and throw them into the midst of the burning of the cow.
7. The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.
8. The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water, bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening.
9. A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the Israelites for the water of lustration; it is a purification offering.
10. He who gathers the ashes of the cow shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This shall be a perpetual statute for the Israelites and for the stranger who resides among them.
11. He who touches the dead body of any human being shall be unclean seven days.
12. He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and 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.
13. Anyone who touches a dead body, 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. Because the water of lustration was not dashed on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
14. This is the law when a person dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.
15. And every open vessel, which has no covering fastened on it, is unclean.
16. Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or who has died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
17. For the unclean person, they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt purification offering, and fresh water shall be added in a vessel.
18. A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone, or the one killed, or the one who died, or the grave.
19. The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; thus on the seventh day he shall purify him, and he shall 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 the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water of lustration has not been dashed on him; he is unclean.
21. It shall be a perpetual statute for them. The one who sprinkles the water of lustration shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water of lustration 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.”

Interpretation: This chapter details the laws concerning the ritual of the red cow, a unique purification offering for the cleansing of ritual impurity, particularly related to contact with the dead. The detailed rituals underscore the significance of purity in the Israelite community, affecting everything from personal cleanliness to the sanctity of the community’s sacred spaces. The red cow ritual is distinctive in that it purifies the unclean and simultaneously renders those involved in its preparation and application, temporarily unclean. This paradox highlights the profound mystery and holiness associated with the process of purification.