Numbers 8:7 - Exposition

Sprinkle water of purifying upon them. Rather, "water of sin," so called because it had to do with the removal of sin, just as "water of separation" ( Numbers 19:9 , Numbers 19:13 ) was that which delivered from the legal state of separation. It is not likely to have been prepared in the same manner as this latter ( Numbers 19:9 ), both because of the great difference between the two cases, and because the ordinance of the red heifer belonged to a later period. Nor is it likely to have resembled that used for cleansing the leper, or the water of jealousy. But it is rash to conclude that, because we do not read any special directions for its preparation, it must, therefore, have been nothing trot water from the laver which stood in the outer court. That water appears, indeed, to be called "holy water" in Numbers 5:17 , which is intelligible enough; but no probable reason can be shown why it should be called "sin water;" it would seem as reasonable to call the water which our Lord turned into wine "sill water," because it stood there "for the purifying of the Jews." It is better to say that we do not know, because it is not recorded, how this water was prepared, or how it corresponded to its name. The Levites who were to be sprinkled would seem to have included all the males, some twenty thousand in number; because it was all the males, and not only those between thirty and fifty, who were to be dedicated in place of the first-born. In any case it was, of course, impossible that Moses could have sprinkled them individually (see below on Numbers 5:11 ). Let them shave all their flesh. Literally, "let them cause the razor to pass over their whole body." Some distinguish between עָבַר תּעַר here and גִלַּה in Le Numbers 14:8 , Numbers 14:9 , as though the latter meant a much more complete shaving off of the hair than the former; but this difference is doubtful; the fact that the whole body as well as the head was to be shaved implies that it was more than a mere cutting short of the hair. Let them wash their clothes. This was constantly enjoined on all the faithful as a preparation for any special religious service (see on Exodus 19:10 ). And so make themselves clean. The shaving and washing had, no doubt, a symbolic significance, but their primary object was simply and obviously personal cleanliness; it is the hair and the clothes that chiefly harbour impurities, especially in a hot climate.