Numbers 19:10

Num 19:10 And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.

Ver. 10. Shall wash his clothes.] To note, that even the nearer a Christian comes to the merits of Christ, the more he is affected with the sense of his own uncleanness; yea, he retains it till even, that is, till death.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Use of the Water of Purification. - The words in Num 19:10, "And it shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger in the midst of them, for an everlasting statute," relate to the preparation and application of the sprinkling water, and connect the foregoing instructions with those which follow. - Num 19:1-13 contain the general rules for the use of the water; Num 19:14-22 a more detailed description of the execution of those rules.

Num 19:11-13

Whoever touched a corpse, "with regard to all the souls of men," i.e., the corpse of a person, of whatever age or sex, was unclean for seven days, and on the third and seventh day he was to cleanse himself (התחטּא, as in Num 8:21) with the water (בּו refers, so far as the sense is concerned, to the water of purification). If he neglected this cleansing, he did not become clean, and he defiled the dwelling of Jehovah (see at Lev 15:31). Such a man was to be cut off from Israel (vid., at Gen 17:14).

Num 19:14-16

Special instructions concerning the defilement. If a man died in a tent, every one who entered it, or who was there at the time, became unclean for seven days. So also did every "open vessel upon which there was not a covering, a string," i.e., that had not a covering fastened by a string, to prevent the smell of the corpse from penetrating it. פּתיל, a string, is in apposition to צמיד, a band, or binding (see Ges. 113; Ewald, 287, e.). This also applied to any one in the open field, who touched a man who had either been slain by the sword or had died a natural death, or even a bone (skeleton), or a grave.

Num 19:17-20

Ceremony of purification. They were to take for the unclean person some of the dust of the burning of the cow, i.e., some of the ashes obtained by burning the cow, and put living, i.e., fresh water (see Lev 14:5), upon it in a vessel. A clean man was then to take a bunch of hyssop (see Exo 12:22), on account of its inherent purifying power, and dip it in the water, on the third and seventh day after the defilement had taken place, and to sprinkle the tent, with the vessels and persons in it, as well as every one who had touched a corpse, whether a person slain, or one who had died a natural death, or a grave; after which the persons were to wash their clothes and bathe, that they might be clean in the evening. As the uncleanness in question is held up as the highest grade of uncleanness, by its duration being fixed at seven days, i.e., an entire week, so the appointment of a double purification with the sprinkling water shows the force of the uncleanness to be removed; whilst the selection of the third and seventh days was simply determined by the significance of the numbers themselves. In Num 19:20, the threat of punishment for the neglect of purification is repeated from Num 19:13, for the purpose of making it most emphatic.

Num 19:21-22

This also was to be an everlasting statute, that he who sprinkled the water of purification, or even touched it (see at Num 19:7.), and he who was touched by a person defiled (by a corpse), and also the person who touched him, should be unclean till the evening, - a rule which also applied to other forms of uncleanness.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

(10) And it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger . . . —So the promise of the remission of sins through Christ Jesus was not only to the Jews and to their children, but also to all that were afar off. (See Act_2:39.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes,.... Whom the Targum of Jonathan calls a priest, though it does not seem necessary he should be one:

and be unclean until the even; See Gill on Num 19:7,

and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever; until the Messiah came, whose sufferings and death are for the expiation of, and purification for the sins of Jews and Gentiles, of all the people of God throughout the world, signified by the burning of this heifer; see Jo1 2:2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He that gathered the ashes became equally unclean with the others. For the defilement of the people, previously transferred to the heifer, was regarded as concentrated in the ashes.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Strangers. Even those who had not embraced the Jewish religion. (Grotius) --- Thus, the baptism of Christ brings salvation both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. (St. Augustine)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The stranger that sojourneth, to wit, a proselyte, not any stranger, as some understand it. For since it is confessed all the other ceremonial laws do not oblige them, and that where the name of stranger is put, as here it is, it generally speaks of a proselyte, it is more reasonable to take it so here, than without any reason or evidence to make this a particular exception from the general rule.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. He that gathereth — Here we have a paradox. The clean man, in gathering the ashes which make clean, becomes unclean. Does it not fore-show that the scribes, priests, and all others who procured the shedding of the blood of Christ which “cleanseth from all sin” became sinners by this very act? “Yet some of them were, and all might have been, cleansed by the virtue of that same blood which they had brought themselves under the guilt of.” — Henry.

The stranger — See Lev_23:22, note.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It shall be unto the children of Israel...a statute for ever. This may refer only to the former part of the verse, according to the analogy of verse 21, or it may refer to the whole ordinance of the red heifer.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The stranger - A proselyte.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.