19:1-10
We have another chapter of rules and regulations, in this case Laws for purification. First we have rules for the sacrifice of a red heifer. It had to be one on which no yoke had ever been placed. Eleazar the priest was to carry out the actual offering. Since it involved touching a dead body, he was unclean until morning. This is the reason for all the washing. A man who was clean was to gather up the residue, but, of course, he would also be unclean until morning.
19:11-13
We then get more general instructions on people who touch a dead body of a person. This would make them unclean for seven days, and the purification rituals had to be carried out very strictly. A prime concern was to avoid defiling the tabernacle. Why so much concern about having touched a dead person? I would guess that it is because death was not meant to be part of God’s kingdom. Death only came in because of sin.
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