---
title: "Clarke"
description: "the congregation, 20. This is to be a perpetual statute, 21, 22. NOTES ON CHAP. XIX Verse Numbers 19:2. Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19"
---

*the congregation*, 20.
*This is to be a perpetual statute*, 21, 22.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIX

Verse [Numbers 19:2](../../../kjv/numbers/19/2). ***Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring**********thee, c.*** — The ordinance of the red heifer was a sacrifice of general application. All the people were to have an interest in it, and therefore the people at large are to provide the sacrifice. This Jewish rite certainly had a reference to things done under the Gospel, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has remarked: "For if," says he, "the blood of bulls and of goats," alluding, probably, to the sin-offerings and the scape-goat, "and the ashes of a *heifer*, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God!" [Hebrews 9:13-14](../../../kjv/hebrews/9/13-14). As the principal stress of the allusion here is to the ordinance of the *red heifer*, we may certainly conclude that it was designed to typify the sacrifice of our blessed Lord.
We may remark several curious particulars in this ordinance.
1. A *heifer* was appointed for a sacrifice, probably, in opposition to the Egyptian superstition which held these *sacred*, and actually worshipped their great goddess *Isis* under this form; and this appears the more likely because *males* in general were preferred for sacrifice, yet here the *female* is chosen.
2. It was to be a *red* heifer, because *red bulls* were sacrificed to appease the evil demon *Typhon*, worshipped among the Egyptians. See *Spencer*.
3. The heifer was to be *without spot*- having no mixture of any other colour. Plutarch remarks, *De Iside et de Osiride*, that if there was a *single hair* in the animal either *white* or black, it marred the sacrifice. See *Calmet*, and [Numbers 8:7](../../../kjv/numbers/8/7).
4. *Without blemish*- having no kind of imperfection in her body; the other, probably, applying to the *hair* or *colour*.
5. *On which never came yoke*, because any animal which had been used for any common purpose was deemed improper to be offered in sacrifice to God. The heathens, who appear to have borrowed much from the Hebrews, were very scrupulous in this particular. Neither the Greeks nor Romans, nor indeed the Egyptians, would offer an animal in sacrifice that had been employed for agricultural purposes. Of this we have the most positive evidence from *Homer*, *Porphyry, Virgil*, and *Macrobius*.
The Romans had the same religion with the Greeks, and consequently the same kind of sacrifices; so Virgil, Georg. iv., ver. 550.

Quatuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros
Ducit, *et intacta* totidem cervice *juveneas*.

"---------From his herd he culls
For slaughter four the fairest of his bulls;
Four *heifers* from his female stock he took,
All *fair*, and all *unknowing of the yoke*."
- DRYDEN.

It is very likely that the Gentiles learnt their first sacrificial rites from the patriarchs; and on this account we need not wonder to find so many coincidences in the sacrificial system of the patriarchs and Jews, and all the neighbouring nations.

Verse [Numbers 19:9](../../../kjv/numbers/19/9). ***For a water of separation*** — That is, the ashes were to be kept, in order to be mixed with water, [Numbers 19:17](../../../kjv/numbers/19/17), and sprinkled on those who had contracted any legal defilement.

Verse [Numbers 19:11](../../../kjv/numbers/19/11). ***He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be**********unclean seven days.*** — How low does this lay man! He who touched a dead *beast* was only unclean for one day, [Leviticus 11:24](../../../kjv/leviticus/11/24); [Leviticus 11:27](../../../kjv/leviticus/11/27); [Leviticus 11:39](../../../kjv/leviticus/11/39); but he who touches a dead *man* is unclean for *seven days*. This was certainly designed to mark the peculiar impurity of man, and to show his sinfulness - *seven* times worse than the vilest animal! O thou son of the morning, how art thou fallen!

Verse [Numbers 19:12](../../../kjv/numbers/19/12). ***He shall purify himself with it*** — יתחטא בו *yithchatta bo*, literally, *he shall sin himself with it*. This Hebrew form of speech is common enough among us in other matters. Thus to *fleece, to bark*, and *to skin*, do not signify to *add* a *fleece*, another *bark*, or a *skin*, but to take one away; therefore, *to sin himself*, in the Hebrew idiom, is not to *add* sin, but to take it away, to *purify*. The verb חטא *chata* signifies to *miss* *the mark*, to *sin*, to *purify from sin*, and to *make a* *sin-offering*. [Genesis 13:13](../../../kjv/genesis/13/13).
THE Hebrews generally sacrificed males, no matter of what colour; but here a heifer, and a heifer of a red colour, is ordered. The reason of these circumstances is not very well known.
"The rabbins, with all their boldness," says Calmet, "who stick at nothing when it is necessary to explain what they do not understand, declare that the cause of this law is entirely unknown; and that Solomon, with all his wisdom, could not find it out."
Several *fathers*, as well *modern* as *ancient*, profess to understand the whole clearly.
1. The *red* heifer with them signifies the *flesh of our Lord*, formed out of an earthly substance.
2. Being *without spot*, c., the *infinite holiness* of Christ.
3. The *sex* of the animal, the *infirmity* of our flesh, with which he clothed himself.
4. The *red* colour, his *passion*.
5. Being *unyoked*, his being righteous in all his conduct, and never *under the yoke of sin*.
6. *Eleazar's* sacrificing the heifer instead of *Aaron*, [Numbers 19:3](../../../kjv/numbers/19/3), signifies the *change of the priesthood* from the family of Aaron, in order that a new and more perfect priesthood might take place.
7. *The red heifer being taken without the camp* ([Numbers 19:3](../../../kjv/numbers/19/3)) to be slain, points out the *crucifixion* of our Lord *without the city*.
8. The complete *consuming* of the heifer by fire, the *complete* *offering* of the whole body and soul of Christ as a sacrifice to God for the sin of man: for as the heifer was *without blemish*, the whole might be offered to God and as Christ was *immaculate*, his whole body and soul were made a sacrifice for sin.
9. As the fire of this sacrifice *ascended* up to God, so it points out the *resurrection* and *ascension* of our blessed Lord.
10. And as the *ashes* of this victim communicated a legal purity to those who were defiled, so true *repentance*, signified by those *ashes*, is necessary for the expiation of the offences committed after baptism. A great part of this is true in itself; but how little evidence is there that all these things were intended in the ordinance of the *red heifer*? [Numbers 8:7](../../../kjv/numbers/8/7).

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/images/missing.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/images/missing.jpg","width":640,"height":370,"caption":"Clarke's Commentary -  Numbers 19"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19","name":"Clarke's Commentary -  Numbers 19","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19#primaryimage"},"datePublished":null,"dateModified":null,"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"the congregation, 20. This is to be a perpetual statute, 21, 22. NOTES ON CHAP. XIX Verse Numbers 19:2. Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries","name":"Commentaries"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary","name":"Clarke's Commentary"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers","name":"Numbers"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/numbers/19","name":"19"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]}
```