Numbers 19:2-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
2 This is the statute for the ritual which the Lord has commanded. Tell the Israelites to procure for you a red heifer without defect and free from every blemish and on which no yoke has ever been laid. 3 You will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be led outside the camp[a] and slaughtered in his presence. 4 Eleazar the priest will take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting.[b]
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- 19:3 Outside the camp: several early Christian writers saw in this a prefiguring of the sacrificial death of Jesus outside the walls of Jerusalem; cf. Jn 19:20; Hb 13:12; in the purifying water, into which the ashes of the red heifer were put, they saw a type of the water of Baptism.
- 19:4 Toward the front of the tent of meeting: since the tabernacle faced the east (Ex 26:15–30), the killing of the heifer would take place east of the camp; in later times it was done on the Mount of Olives, east of the Temple.
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