Numbers 19:1
INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 19
This chapter contains a law for making a water for purification for sin, the ingredients of which are the ashes of a red heifer burnt, about which many things are observed, Nu 19:1; the use of the water made of them, to purify such as were unclean by the touch of a dead body, Nu 19:11; some rules are given, by which it might be known who were unclean on account of a dead body, Nu 19:14; the manner of purifying such persons, Nu 19:17; and the punishment of those that should neglect purification, Nu 19:20.
Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron,.... Not at this time, after the business of the spies, and the affair of Korah, but before the children of Israel departed from Sinai; and so Aben Ezra observes, that this was spoken in the wilderness of Sinai, when the Lord commanded to put unclean persons out of the camp, and when some were defiled with a dead body, and unfit for the passover, Nu 5:2; and mention is made of the "water of purifying", Nu 8:7;
saying; as follows.