the Week of Proper 24 / Ordinary 29
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Christian Standard Bible ®
Numbers 19:2
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"This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come.
This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, [and] on which never came a yoke.
This is the statute of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
"These are the teachings that the Lord commanded. Tell the Israelites to get a young red cow that does not have anything wrong with it and that has never been worked.
"This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded: ‘Instruct the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without blemish, which has no defect and has never carried a yoke.
This [is] the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, in which [is] no blemish, [and] upon which never came a yoke:
This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no blemish, [and] on which never came yoke.
"This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded: 'Tell the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed.
and seide, This is the religioun of sacrifice, which the Lord ordeynede. Comaunde thou to the sones of Israel, that thei brynge to thee a reed cow of hool age, in which is no wem, nether sche hath bore yok.
`This [is] a statute of the law which Jehovah hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the sons of Israel, and they bring unto thee a red cow, a perfect one, in which there is no blemish, on which no yoke hath gone up;
"This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red heifer that has no defect and has never been placed under a yoke.
This is the statute of the law which Jehovah hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.
This is the rule of the law which the Lord has made, saying, Give orders to the children of Israel to give you a red cow without any mark on her, and on which the yoke has never been put:
This is the ordinaunce of the lawe which the Lord hath commaunded, saying: Speake vnto the children of Israel that they bring thee a redde cowe without spot, and wherin is no blemishe, and vpon which neuer came yoke.
"This is the regulation from the Torah which Adonai has commanded. Tell the people of Isra'el to bring you a young red female cow without fault or defect and which has never borne a yoke.
This is the statute of the law which Jehovah hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without blemish, wherein is no defect, and upon which never came yoke;
"These are the laws from the teachings that the Lord gave to the Israelites. Get a red cow that has nothing wrong with it. That cow must not have any bruises. And it must never have worn a yoke.
This is the statute of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer, faultless, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.
This is the ordinance of the Law, which the Lord hath commaunded, saying, Speake vnto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and vpon which neuer came yoke.
"This is the Law which the Lord has told you. Tell the people of Israel to bring you a young red cow that is perfect, one that has never pulled a load.
This is a statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which no yoke has been laid.
This, is the statute of the law, which Yahweh hath commanded, saying, - Speak unto the sons of Israel - That they bring unto thee a red heifer, without defect wherein is no blemish, and whereupon hath come no yoke.
This is the ordinance of the lawe, which the Lorde hath commanded, saying, Speake vnto the children of Israel that they bring thee a red kowe without blemish, wherein is no spot, vpon the which neuer came yoke.
This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer, perfect, in which there is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke;
to give the Israelites the following regulations. Bring to Moses and Aaron a red cow which has no defects and which has never been worked,
This is the observance of the victim, which the Lord hath ordained. Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee a red cow of full age, in which there is no blemish, and which hath not carried the yoke:
"This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and upon which a yoke has never come.
This is the constitution of the law, as the Lord has commanded, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, and let them take for thee a red heifer without spot, which has no spot on her, and on which no yoke has been put.
This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Yisra'el, that they bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no blemish, [and] on which never came yoke.
This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
"This is the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the Israelites and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke has not been placed.
This is the statute of the law which Jehovah has commanded, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer, without blemish, in which there is no blemish, on which no yoke ever came.
This custome shall be a lawe, which the LORDE hath comaunded, & sayde: Speake vnto ye children of Israel, yt they brynge vnto ye a reed cow without spot, wherin is no blemysh, & vpon who there came neuer yock:
"This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been mounted.
"This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying: "Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come.
"Here is another legal requirement commanded by the Lord : Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer, a perfect animal that has no defects and has never been yoked to a plow.
"This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed.
"This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they take to you a red heifer without blemish, in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
the ordinance: Numbers 31:21, Hebrews 9:10
a red heifer: The following curious particulars have been remarked in this ordinance:
1. A heifer was appointed for sacrifice, in opposition to the Egyptian superstition, which held these sacred, and worshipped their goddess Isis under this form; and this appears the more likely, because males only were chosen for sacrifice. So Herodotus says, they sacrifice males, both old and young; but it is not lawful for them to offer females.
2. It was to be a red heifer, because the Egyptians sacrificed red bulls to the evil demon Typhon.
3. It was to be without spot, having no mixture of any other colour. Plutarch says, the Egyptians "sacrifice red bulls, and select them with such scrupulous attention, that if the animal has a single black or white hair, they reckon it ××ץפ××, unfit to be sacrificed."
4. Without blemish. - See note on Leviticus 22:21.
5. On which never came yoke: because an animal which had been used for a common purpose was deemed improper for sacrifice. Numbers 19:6, Leviticus 14:6, Isaiah 1:18, Revelation 1:5
no blemish: Exodus 12:5, Leviticus 22:20-25, Malachi 1:13, Malachi 1:14, Luke 1:35, Hebrews 7:26, 1 Peter 1:19, 1 Peter 2:22
upon which: Deuteronomy 21:3, 1 Samuel 6:7, Lamentations 1:14, John 10:17, John 10:18, Philippians 2:6-8
Reciprocal: Numbers 5:17 - holy water Nehemiah 12:30 - themselves Hebrews 9:13 - and Hebrews 9:14 - without
Cross-References
Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.
As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
And he said to him, “All right, I’ll grant your request about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned.
He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace.
So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when he demolished the cities where Lot had lived.
After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
This [is] the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded,.... By which it appears, that this law was not of the moral, but of the ceremonial kind, being called an ordinance, a statute, a decree of God, the King of kings; and which was founded not on any clear plain reason in the thing itself, but in the will of God, who intended it as a type and shadow of the blood and sacrifice of Christ, and of the efficacy of that to cleanse from sin; and it also appears by this, that it was not a new law now made, but which had been made already: "which the Lord hath commanded": as is plain from what has been observed, :-; and the Jews q say, that the red heifer was slain by Eleazar the day after the tabernacle was erected, even on the second day of the first month of Israel's coming out of Egypt; and it was now repeated both on account of the priests and people, because of the priest to whom it belonged, as Aben Ezra observes, Aaron being now established in the priesthood; and because of the people, who were afraid they should die if they came near the tabernacle; now hereby they are put in mind of a provision made for the purification of them, when under any uncleanness, which made them unfit for coming to it:
saying, speak unto the children of Israel; whom this law concerned, and for whose purification it was designed; and it was at the expense not of a private person, but of the whole congregation, that the water of purifying was made; and that, as the Jews say r, that the priests might have no personal profit from it:
that they bring thee a red heifer; or "young cow", for so the word properly signifies; one of two years old, as the Targum of Jonathan, and so says the Misnah s; though some of the Rabbins say one of three years, or of four years, or even one of five years old, would do. This instance, with others, where females are ordered to be slain, see Leviticus 3:1; confutes the notion of such, who think the laws of Moses were made in conformity to the customs of the Egyptians, this being directly contrary to them; if they were the same in the times of Moses, they were in the times of Herodotus, who expressly says t, male oxen the Egyptians sacrifice; but it is not lawful for them to sacrifice females, for they are sacred to Isis. Indeed, according to Plutarch u and Diodorus Siculus w, the Egyptians in their times sacrificed red bullocks to Typhon, who they supposed was of the same colour, and to whom they had an aversion, accounting him the god of evil; and because red oxen were odious to them, they offered them to him; as red-haired men also were slain by them for the same reason, at the tomb of Osiris, who they say was murdered by the red-haired Typhon; but these were superstitions that obtained among them after the times of Moses, and could not be retorted to by him; a better reason is to be given why this heifer or cow was to be of a red colour:
without spot, wherein [is] no blemish; the first of these, without spot, the Jews understand of colour, that it should have no spots in it of any other colour, black or white, nor indeed so much as an hair, at least not two of another colour; and so the Targum of Jonathan, in which there is no spot or mark of a white hair; and Jarchi more particularly,
"which is perfect in redness; for if there were in it (he says) two black hairs, it was unfit;''
and so Ben Gersom, with which agrees the Misnah x; if there were in it two hairs, black or white, in one part, it was rejected; if there was one in the head, and another in the tail, it was rejected; if there were two hairs in it, the root or bottom of which were black, and the head or top red, and so on the contrary; all depended on the sight: and it must be owned, the same exactness was observed in the red oxen sacrificed by the Egyptians, as Plutarch relates y; for if the ox had but one hair black or white, they reckoned it was not fit to be sacrificed; in which perhaps they imitated the Jews: it being without blemish was what was common to all sacrifices, such as are described in
Leviticus 22:22;
[and] upon which never came yoke; and so among the Heathens in later times, very probably in imitation of this, they used to offer to their deities oxen that never had bore any yoke; as appears from Homer, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, and Seneca, out of whom instances are produced by Bochart z. Now, though this red cow was not properly a sacrifice for sin, yet it was analogous to one, and was a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all these characters meet, and are significant. It being a female may denote the infirmities of Christ's human nature, to which it was subject, though sinless ones; he was encompassed with, and took on him, our infirmities; and may have some respect to the woman, by whom the transgression came, which brought impurity on all human nature, which made a purification for sin necessary; and the red colour of it may point at the flesh and blood of Christ he partook of, and the sins of his people, which were laid upon him, and were as crimson and as scarlet, and the bloody sufferings he endured to make satisfaction for them; and its being without spot and blemish may denote the perfection of Christ in his person, obedience, and sufferings, and the purity and holiness of his nature; and having never had any yoke upon it may signify, that though he was made under the law, and had commands enjoined him by his father as man, yet was free from the yoke of human traditions, and from the servitude of sin, and most willingly engaged, and not by force and compulsion, in the business of our redemption and salvation.
q Seder Olam Rabba, c. 7. p. 22. r Misn. Shekalim, c. 7. sect. 7. & Maimon, in ib. s Misn. Parah, c. 1. sect. 1. t Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 41. u De lside. w Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 79. x Parah, c. 2. sect. 5. y Ut supra. (Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 79.) z Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 33. vol. 322.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
A red heifer - Red, in order to shadow forth manâs earthly body, even as the name Adam bears allusion to the red earth of which manâs body was fashioned.
Without spot, wherein is no blemish - As with sin-offerings generally Leviticus 4:3.
Upon which never came yoke - So here and elsewhere (see the marginal references), in the case of female victims.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 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. 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.
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.
Just such a sacrifice as that prescribed here, does Diomede vow to offer to Pallas. - Iliad, lib. x., ver. 291.
ΩÌÏ Î½Ï Î½ μοι ÎµÎ¸ÎµÎ»Î¿Ï Ïα ÏαÏιÏÏαÏο, και με ÏÏ Î»Î±ÏÏεÎ
Σοι δ' Î±Ï ÎµÎ³Ï ÏÌÎµÎ¾Ï Î²Î¿Ï Î½ ηνιν ÎµÏ ÏÏ Î¼ÎµÏÏÏον,
ÎδμηÏην, ηÌν Î¿Ï ÏÏ Ï ÌÏο Î¶Ï Î³Î¿Î½ ηγαγεν ανηÏÎ
Την Ïοι ÎµÎ³Ï ÏÌεξÏ, ÏÏÏ Ïον κεÏαÏιν ÏεÏιÏÎµÏ Î±Ï.
"So now be present, O celestial maid;
So still continue to the race thine aid;
A yearling heifer falls beneath the stroke,
Untamed, unconscious of the galling yoke,
With ample forehead and with spreading horns,
Whose tapering tops refulgent gold adorns."
Altered from POPE.
In the very same words Nestor, Odyss., lib. iii., ver. 382, promises a similar sacrifice to Pallas.
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.
