The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 257

disease e.nd death spread their infection in of the Jews heaped around the choice of this the spiritual u well as in the natural order of animal a multitude of precise roquirements, things. Life e.nd death were the two oppo• e.nd supplemented the prescribed ritual with site poles under the law, e.s under the gospel; many ceremonies, some of which are incor• but the eye of faith was fixed upon natural porated by tho Te.rgums with the sacred life e.nd natural death, e.nd was not trained text j but even so they could not destroy the to look beyond. It could never he.ve oc- remarkable contrast bct1veen the simplicity curred to e. Jew to say," Dulce d ckcorum e,st of this offering and tho elaborate complexity pro pa,trid mori." To die, however nobly, of those ordained e.t Sinai. Only six red was not only to be cut off from God oneself, heifers are said to have been needed during but to become e. curse e.nd e. danger e.nd e. the whole of Jewish history, so far-reaching cause of religious defilement to those around. and so long-enduring were the uses and There is, therefore, e. beautiful consistency advantages of a single immolation. It is • between this enactment e.nd the circum- evident the.t this ordinance had for its dis· stances of the time on the one hand, between tinguishing character oneness as opposed to , this enactment and the revealed character of multiplicity, simplicity contrasted with God on the other hand. Although they elaborateness. Without spot, wherein is no were his covenant people no more, since they blemish. See on Levit. iv. 3. However were under sentence of death, yet, like others, little, comparatively speaking, the victim and more than others, they had religious might cost them, it must yet be perfect of horrors and religious fears-not veryspiritue.1, its lpnd. The le.ter Jews held the.t three perhaps, but very real to them ; these horrors white hairs together on any part of the body and fears cried to him piteously for relief, made it unfit for the ;purpose, On the sex and that relief he was careful to give. They and colour of the off'ermg see below. Upon must die, but they need not suffer daily tor- which never came yoke. Cf. Deut. xxi. 3; ment of death; they must not worship him I Se.m. vi 7. The imposition of the yoke, in the splendid and perfect order of his according to the common sentiment of all appointed l'!tua.l, but tliey should e.t least nations, we.s a species of degradation, and have the rites which should make life toler- therefore inconsistent with the ideal of what able to them. It appears to be a mistake was fit to be offered in this case. That the to connect this ordinance especially with the matter was wholly one of sentiment is nothing plague which oc=ed after the rebellion of to the point : God doth not care for oxen of Korab. It was not e.n exceptional calamity, any kind, but he doth care that man should the effects of which might indeed be wide- give him what is, whether in fact or in spread, but would be soon over, which the fancy, the best of its sort. people had to dread exceedingly ; it was the Ver. 3.-Unto Eleazar the priest. Pos- de.iiy mortality always going on in every sibly in order the.t Aaron himself mi~ht not camp under all circumstances. If only the be associated with death, even in th1S indi- elder generation died off in the wilderness, rect way (see ver. 6). In after times, how- this alone would yield nearly 100 victims ever, it was usually the high priest who of- every day, e.nd by each of these a consider- ficiated on this occasion, and therefore it is able number of the survivors must have been quite &s likely the.t Eleazar was designated defiled. Thus, in the absence of special pro- because he was already beginning to te.ke the vision, one of two things must he.ve he.p· place of his father in his especial duties. pened : either the unhappy people would Without the camp. The bodies of those have grown callous and mdifferent to the animals which were offered for the sin of the awful presence of death ; or, more probably, congregation were always burnt outside the a dark cloud of religions horror e.nd depres- camp, the law thus testifying the.t sin and sion would have permanently enveloped death had no proper ple.ce within the city of them. God. In this case, however, the whole sacri• Ver. 2.-This ill the ordinance of the law. fice we.s performed outside the camp, and wns i1"1il'lil ngn. Law-statute: an unusual com- only brought into relation with the national b~ti~n ~°iily found elsewhere in eh. xn:i. sanctuary bl the sprinkling of the blood in 21, which e.lso concerns legal purifications. that direction. Various symbolic reasons A red heifer. This offering was obviously have been assigned to this fact, but none are intended, apart from its symbolic signifi- satisfactory except the following :- I. It cance, to be studiedly simple and cheap. In served to intensify the conviction, which the contradiction to the many and costly e.nd whole of this ordinance we.s intended to bring ever-repeated sacrifices of the Sinaitic legis• home to the minds of men, that death wns lation, this we.a a single individual, e. female, an e.wful thing, and the.t everything con- and of the most common description : red is nected with it we.s wholly foreign to the the most ordinary colour of cattle, e.nd e. pre~ence and habitation of the living God. young heifer is of less value the.n e.ny other 2. It served to mark with more emphe.si~ bee.at of its kind. The ingenuity indeed the :ontra.st between this one off'ering, whicll 00, XIX, 1-22.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 241