(3.) Equally noticeable, as might be expected, are the traces of this havoc as displayed in the various unclean- nesses of death — the third and last of our chapters of classification; and herein we recognise the deeper im- plication of our human race in the ruin, above all other living beings. " By the law of Jloses," says Liglitfoot, "nothing was unclean to be touched while it was alive, but only man : a man in leprosy was unclean to be touched, and a woman in her separation; but dogs, swine, worms, etc., were not unclean to be touched till they were dead; and there were also different degrees herein , while toucliing a dead beast brouglit unclean- ness for a day, touching a dead man produced the un- cleanness of a week," etc. {Harm, of 0. T. as above). This gradation of defilement from contact with death is described— («) In Lev. xi, 8, 11, 2-^, 26, 27, 31-35, 39, 40 ; xvii, 15. (h) In Lev. xxii, 4-8. (o) In Numb. xix, 11, 14, 16. ((/) In Numb, vi, 9. In the first of these four sections, the uncleanness arises from the dead bodies of animals, fislies, birds, and reptiles. It was tlie sliortest in duration, lasting in every case onlj' " until even ;" and it was to be terminated uniformly by the washing of the clothes. The last statute, Lev. xvii, 1.5, prescribed ablution of the person also for "every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts." In the second section, the same de- filement is described as incidental to the priests, no less than to the laity, from which they must free themselves Ijy ablution. So much for the minor uncleanuesses from the dead. Our third and fourth sections contain the instances where the major disability of seven days is occasioned by contact with human dead: "Whoso- ever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the o[)en fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man. or a grave, shall be unclean seven days." As the defilement was deeper, so was the mode of purification more elab- orate and solemn. For the details of the ceremony — tlie sacrifice of the red heifer without the camp; the sevenfold sprinkling of her blood before the tabernacle; the utter consumption by fire of the slain animal; the cedar-wood, hyssop, and scarlet cast into the burning mass; the gathering-up of the ashes; their mixture in running water for " the water of separation ;" the sprink- ling of this water over the unclean person, on the third and the last of the seven days; his own washing of his clothes and bathing of his person, and his final cleansing on the evening of the seventh day — the reader will con- sult the 19tli chapter of Numbers. Our fourth section
describes the interruption of the Nazarite's vow bv any sudden death happening iu his presence. This mortali- ty "lost him" all the days of his vow which had tran- spired, and required for its own expiation also the usual hebdomad, on the last day of wliich he was to shave his head, and on the morrow bring two young pigeons or two turtles to the priest, that he might present them as a sin-offering and a burnt-offering as an atonement for the polluted. See Pi'iufication.
2. A few stray instances remain of a peculiar kind, which we proceed to class in a supplementary notice. (1.) We have thou under this head, first, the cases of what may be called official uncleanness. [«.] The priest who superinteniled the holocaust of the red heifer was rendered unclean until evening by the part he took in the sacred rite; from this defilement he purified him- self by the washing of his clothes and the ablution of his person (Numb, xix, 7). This uncleanness was the more remarkable from the precautionary character of the law, which in other eases seemed strongly to aim at preserving the priests, as far as might be, from the incidence of ceremonial pollution (see Lev. xxi, 1-4). [6.] The man that burned the heifer was involved in the same defilement as the priest, from which he was also extricated by a similar purification (Numb, xix, 8). [f.] So, again, the man who gathered the ashes of the consumed heifer was unclean until evening; but from this disability he was released bv the lesser ceremony of simph' washing his clothes (ver. 10). Similar in- stances of uncleanness, arising out of official routine, oc- cur in the ordinances of the Day of Atonement. [</.] The man who dismissed the scape-goat was to wash his clothes and bathe himself before returning to the camp (Lev. xvi, 26), and a like purification was re- quired of him who burned the bullock and the goat of the sin-offering (ver. 28). [c] Under this head of official uncleanness, we may perhaps place the abnormal case of the Israelitish soldiers who slew the Midianites at the command of Moses (Numb, xxxi, 17). They were to remain outside the camp seven days; purify them- selves on the third and on the seventh day; cleanse their raiment, etc., with either fire or the water of sepa- ration, as the case might require, and on the last day wash their clothes (ver. 19, 20, 23, 24).