The ashes of the red cow
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said:
2 “This is a regulation and a law that Yahweh gives to you. Say to the people of Israel that they are to bring you a red cow which has no defects and has never been made to work.
3 You will give it to Eleazar the priest so that it may be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
4 Then Elea zar the priest is to take some of the cow’s blood on his finger, and sprinkle this blood seven times toward the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
5 The cow shall then be burned in his presence; including hide, flesh, blood, and the intestines too.
6 Then the priest is to take cedar wood, a twig of hyssop leaves and a red cord, and throw them on the fire where the cow is burning.
7 Finally he shall wash his clothing and bathe his body in water, after which he may go back to the camp, but he will remain unclean until evening.
8 The man who has burned the cow shall also wash his clothing and bathe his body in water and will remain unclean until evening.
9 A clean man shall gather up the ashes of the cow and put them outside the camp, in a clean place. They must be kept for the community of Israel to prepare the water of purification.
10 The man who has gathered up the ashes of the cow shall wash his clothing and will remain unclean until evening. This will be a law forever, for the people of Israel as well as for the stranger living among them.
A case of uncleanness
11 Anyone who touches a corpse of any person whatsoever, will be unclean for seven days.
12 He shall purify himself with these waters on the third and the seventh day, and he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third and the seventh day he will not be clean.
13 Anyone who touches a dead person, the body of a man that has died, and has not purified himself, defiles the Holy Tent of Yahweh; such a person must be cut off from Israel because the waters for purification have not flowed over him; he is unclean, and his uncleanness remains in him.
14 This is the law when a person dies in a house. Anyone who goes into the house, or anyone who is already there, be comes unclean for seven days.
15 Equally un clean shall be every open jar and pot in the house that has not been closed with a lid or fastening.
16 Anyone in the open country who touches a person who has been killed, or a person who had died, or human bones or a tomb, becomes unclean for seven days.
17 For the unclean, you shall take some of the ashes of the cow that was offered for the sin and you shall throw it into water in a vessel.
18 A clean man shall dip a twig of hyssop in the water and sprinkle it on the house and everything in it, and on the persons as well who were there. And he shall sprinkle it on the one who touched the bone or the dead body or the one slain, or the grave.
19 The clean man shall sprinkle water on the unclean on the third and the seventh days. So, on the seventh day the unclean is cleansed; he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself on this day and in the evening he will become clean.
20 But if the unclean man does not cleanse him self, he shall be cut off from the assembly, lest he defile the sanctuary of Yahweh. As long as the water of purification has not been thrown upon him, he is unclean.
21 This shall be a lasting ordinance for you. The man who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes and those who touch this water are unclean until the evening.
22 Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean and whoever touches it shall be unclean until evening.”
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Comments Numbers, Chapter 19
• 19.1 The letter to the Hebrews refers specifically to this chapter when it speaks of the sacrifices of the Old Testament which could not really give interior purity to anyone and only prefigured the perfect sacrifice of Christ (see Heb 9:13 and 13:11).
Verses 17-21 deal with water for purification. Many people used water in their religious rituals. Here we see how the Jews used it.
After washing us through baptism, the Church also uses holy water. The Church does not at tribute magical power to it but is aware that visible signs help bring about proper dispositions in us: making the sign of the cross with holy water, attentively and with faith, helps us to set aside our daily preoccupations at the entrance to the church.