--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 169 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/169/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 169. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/169/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 169. Numbers · 18 of 34 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/169/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/169/#p-N [¶0] 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. [¶1] Just such a sacrifice as that prescribed here, does Diomede vow to offer to Pallas - Iliad, lib. x., ver. 291. Ὡς νυν μοι εθελουσα παριστασο, και με φυλασσε· Σοι δ' αυ εγω ῥεξω βουν ηνιν ευρυμετωπον, Αδμητην, ἡν ουπω ὑπο ζυγον ηγαγεν ανηρ· Την τοι εγω ῥεξω, χρυσον κερασιν περιχευας. "So now be present, O celestial maid; [¶2] So still continue to the race thine aid; [¶3] A yearling heifer falls beneath the stroke, [¶4] Untamed, unconscious of the galling yoke, [¶5] With ample forehead and with spreading horns, [¶6] Whose tapering tops refulgent gold adorns." [¶7] Altered from Pope. [¶8] In the very same words Nestor, Odyss., lib. iii., ver. 382, promises a similar sacrifice to Pallas. [¶9] The Romans had the same religion with the Greeks, and consequently the same kind of sacrifices; so Virgil, Georg. iv., ver. 550. [¶10] Quatuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros [¶11] Ducit, et intacta totidem cervice juveneas. " - From his herd he culls [¶12] For slaughter four the fairest of his bulls; [¶13] Four heifers from his female stock he took, [¶14] All fair, and all unknowing of the yoke." [¶15] Dryden. [¶16] 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 neighboring nations. ### Verse 9 [¶18] For a water of separation - That is, the ashes were to be kept, in order to be mixed with water, [Num 19:17], and sprinkled on those who had contracted any legal defilement. ### Verse 11 [¶20] He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days - How low does this lay man! He who touched a dead beast was only unclean for one day, [Lev 11:24], [Lev 11:27], [Lev 11:39]; but he who touches a dead man is unclean for seven days. This was certainly designed to mark the peculiar impurity of man, and to show his sinfulness - seven times worse than the vilest animal! O thou son of the morning, how art thou fallen! ### Verse 12 [¶22] He shall purify himself with it - יתחטא בו yithchatta bo, literally, he shall sin himself with it. This Hebrew form of speech is common enough among us in other matters. Thus to fleece, to bark, and to skin, do not signify to add a fleece, another bark, or a skin, but to take one away; therefore, to sin himself, in the Hebrew idiom, is not to add sin, but to take it away, to purify. The verb חטא chata signifies to miss the mark, to sin, to purify from sin, and to make a sin-offering. See the note on [Gen 13:13]. [¶23] The Hebrews generally sacrificed males, no matter of what color; but here a heifer, and a heifer of a red color, is ordered. The reason of these circumstances is not very well known. "The rabbins, with all their boldness," says Calmet, "who stick at nothing when it is necessary to explain what they do not understand, declare that the cause of this law is entirely unknown; and that Solomon, with all his wisdom, could not find it out." [¶24] Several fathers, as well modern as ancient, profess to understand the whole clearly. [¶25] 1. The red heifer with them signifies the flesh of our Lord, formed out of an earthly substance. [¶26] 2. Being without spot, etc., the infinite holiness of Christ. [¶27] 3. The sex of the animal, the infirmity of our flesh, with which he clothed himself. [¶28] 4. The red color, his passion. [¶29] 5. Being unyoked, his being righteous in all his conduct, and never under the yoke of sin. [¶30] 6. Eleazar's sacrificing the heifer instead of Aaron, [Gen 13:3], signifies the change of the priesthood from the family of Aaron, in order that a new and more perfect priesthood might take place. [¶31] 7. The red heifer being taken without the camp ([Gen 13:3]) to be slain, points out the crucifixion of our Lord without the city. [¶32] 8. The complete consuming of the heifer by fire, the complete offering of the whole body and soul of Christ as a sacrifice to God for the sin of man: for as the heifer was without blemish, the whole might be offered to God; and as Christ was immaculate, his whole body and soul were made a sacrifice for sin. [¶33] 9. As the fire of this sacrifice ascended up to God, so it points out the resurrection and ascension of our blessed Lord. [¶34] 10. And as the ashes of this victim communicated a legal purity to those who were defiled, so true repentance, signified by those ashes, is necessary for the expiation of the offenses committed after baptism. [¶35] A great part of this is true in itself; but how little evidence is there that all these things were intended in the ordinance of the red heifer? See on [Num 8:7] (note). ### Introduction [¶37] The Israelites come to Zin, and Miriam dies, [Num 20:1]. They murmur for want of water, [Num 20:2-5]. Moses and Aaron make supplication at the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord appears, [Num 20:6]. He commands Moses to take his rod, gather the congregation together, and bring water out of the rock, [Num 20:7], [Num 20:8]. Moses takes the rod, gathers the Israelites together, chides with them, and smites the rock twice, and the waters flow out plenteously, [Num 20:9-11]. The Lord is offended with Moses and Aaron because they did not sanctify him in the sight of the children of Israel, [Num 20:12]. The place is called Meribah, [Num 20:13]. Moses sends a friendly message to the king of Edom, begging liberty to pass through his territories, [Num 20:14-17]. The Edomites refuse, [Num 20:18]. The Israelites expostulate, [Num 20:19]. The Edomites still refuse, and prepare to attack them, [Num 20:20], [Num 20:21]. The Israelites go to Mount Hor, [Num 20:22]. Aaron is commanded to prepare far his death, [Num 20:23], [Num 20:24]. Aaron is stripped on Mount Hor, and his vestments put on Eleazar his son; Aaron dies, [Num 20:25-28]. The people mourn for him thirty days, [Num 20:29]. ### Verse 1 [¶39] Then came the children of Israel, etc. - This was the first month of the fortieth year after their departure from Egypt. See [Num 33:38], compared with [Num 20:28] of this chapter, and [Deu 1:3]. The transactions of thirty-seven years Moses passes by, because he writes not as a historian but as a legislator; and gives us particularly an account of the laws, ordinances, and other occurrences of the first and last years of their peregrinations. The year now spoken of was the last of their journeyings; for from the going out of the spies, Numbers 13, unto this time, was about thirty-eight years, [Deu 1:22], [Deu 1:23]; [Deu 2:14]. [¶40] Desert of Zin - Calmet contends that this is not the same desert mentioned [Exo 16:1], where Israel had their eighth encampment; that in Exodus being called in the original סין sin, this here צין tsin: but this is no positive proof, as letters of the same organ are frequently interchanged in all languages, and particularly in Hebrew. [¶41] And Miriam died there - Miriam was certainly older than Moses. When he was an infant, exposed on the river Nile, she was entrusted by her parents to watch the conduct of Pharaoh's daughter, and to manage a most delicate business, that required much address and prudence. See Exodus 2. It is supposed that she was at the time of her death one hundred and thirty years of age, having been at least ten years old at her brother's birth. The Catholic writers represent her as a type of the Virgin Mary; as having preserved a perpetual virginity; as being legislatrix over the Israelitish women, as Moses was over the men; and as having a large portion of the spirit of prophecy. Eusebius says that her tomb was to be seen at Kadesh, near the city of Petra, in his time. She appears to have died about four months before her brother Aaron, [Num 33:38], and eleven before her brother Moses; so that these three, the most eminent of human beings, died in the space of one year! ### Verse 2 [¶43] And there was no water for the congregation - The same occurrence took place to the children of Israel at Kadesh, as did formerly to their fathers at Rephidim, see [Exo 17:1]; and as the fathers murmured, so also did the children.