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וכה3541 תעשׂה6213 להם  לטהרם2891  הזה5137  עליהם5921  מי4325  חטאת2403  והעבירו5674 תער8593 על5921 כל3605 בשׂרם1320 וכבסו3526 בגדיהם899 והטהרו׃2891

Le 8:6; 14:7 Isa 52:15 Eze 36:25 Heb 9:10

Verse 7. Sprinkle water of purifying] tafj ym mey chattath, water of sin, or water of the sin-offering. As this purifying water was made by the ashes of the red heifer, cedar-wood, hyssop, and scarlet; and the heifer herself was sacrificed, and her blood sprinkled seven times before the tabernacle, chap. xix. 3-6; she may be considered as a proper sacrifice for sin, and consequently the water thus prepared be termed the water of the sin-offering. As the ashes were kept ready at hand for purifying from all legal pollutions, the preparation might be considered as a concentration of the essential properties of the sin-offering, and might be resorted to at all times with comparatively little expense or trouble, and no loss of time.

As there were so many things by which legal pollution might be contracted, it was necessary to have always at hand, in all their dwellings, a mode of purifying at once convenient and unexpensive. As the water by which the Levites were here purified must have been the water prepared from the ashes of the red heifer, this ordinance was undoubtedly instituted before this time, though not described till chap. xix. 1-10 of this book; but that chapter might be in connection with any of the preceding ordinances, as well as where it is now found. We see from Heb. ix. 13, 14, that these ashes mingled with water, and sprinkled on the unclean, and which sanctified to the purification of the flesh, were intended to typify the blood of Christ, which purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God, ver. 15; for as without this sprinkling with the water of the sin-offering the Levites were not fit to serve God in the wilderness, so without this sprinkling of the blood of Christ no conscience can be purged from dead works to serve the living God. See the notes on chap. xix. 1-10.

Ver. 7. And thus shall thou do unto them, to cleanse them , etc.] Or order Aaron to do unto them; the cleansing of the Levites was the work of Aaron, either by himself or by his order; in which he was a type of Christ, who is the refiner and purifier of the sons of Levi, ( Malachi 3:3); sprinkle water of purifying upon them ; or “water of sin” f81 ; water which purifies from sin, in a ceremonial sense; and this was water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer, which was the purification of persons deified by the dead, as Jarchi observes; and though the law concerning the red heifer, and of making the water of purification, is not made mention of till afterwards, ( Numbers 19:1-22): yet it was very probably given before; and the Jews say f82 , it was on the second of Nisan, or the first month, which was the day after the tabernacle was erected, that Eleazar the priest burnt the red heifer and sprinkled all Israel; this only “sanctified to the purifying of the flesh”, ( Hebrews 9:13), in a ceremonial sense, but was typical of the blood of Christ, which “purges the conscience from dead works”; that so men may be fitted and qualified, as the Levites were, “to serve the living God”, ( Hebrews 9:14); and let them shave all their flesh ; the hair of their bodies, in all parts thereof; even the beard, as Aben Ezra notes, some say; yet not the corners of it; but the whole hair of the body, everywhere, was to be shaved off; to denote the most perfect purity, and a removal of all superfluity of haughtiness and excrescences of the flesh from them: so the Egyptian priests used to shave their whole body every third day, lest there should be anything filthy in those that served the gods f83 : this cleansing of the Levites was after the same manner as lepers were cleansed: and Jarchi observes, from one of their writers, that because the Levites gave an atonement for the firstborn, who committed idolatry, which is called the sacrifices of the dead, and the leper is called a dead man, they were obliged to shaving as the lepers; but Ben Gersom gives a better reason for the shaving of them; that it was to put them in mind that they should forsake material (or corporeal) things, and employ themselves in the service of God; (see Acts 6:2,4) ( 2 Timothy 2:4); and let them wash their clothes ; and much more their bodies, as Chaskuni, after the manner of those who were polluted by touching a dead body; typical of the saints having their bodies washed with pure water, and their garments washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb, ( Hebrews 10:22 Revelation 7:14); and [so] make themselves clean ; the Targum of Jonathan adds, in forty seahs of water; and according to the sense of that paraphrase, both the bodies and clothes of the Levites were dipped in water.

וכה3541 תעשׂה6213 להם  לטהרם2891  הזה5137  עליהם5921  מי4325  חטאת2403  והעבירו5674 תער8593 על5921 כל3605 בשׂרם1320 וכבסו3526 בגדיהם899 והטהרו׃2891