The sacrifice itself was to be superintended by Eleazar the priest, the eldest son of the high priest, and his presumptive successor in office; because Aaron, or the high priest, whose duty it was to present the sin-offerings for the congregation (Leviticus 4:16), could not, according to his official position, which required him to avoid all uncleanness of death (Leviticus 21:11-12), perform such an act as this, which stood in the closest relation to death and the uncleanness of death, and for that very reason had to be performed outside the camp. The subject, to "bring her forth" and "slay her," is indefinite; since it was not the duty of the priest to slay the sacrificial animal, but of the offerer himself, or in the case before us, of the congregation, which would appoint one of its own number for the purpose. All that the priest had to do was to sprinkle the blood; at the same time the slaying was to take place לפניו, before him, i.e., before his eyes. Eleazar was to sprinkle some of the blood seven times "towards the opposite," i.e., toward the front of the tabernacle (seven times, as in Leviticus 4:17). Through this sprinkling of the blood the slaying became a sacrifice, being brought thereby into relation to Jehovah and the sanctuary; whilst the life, which was sacrificed for the sin of the congregation, was given up to the Lord, and offered up in the only way in which a sacrifice, prepared like this, outside the sanctuary, could possibly be offered.

Numbers 19:9 Parallel Commentaries

clean

Numbers 19:18 And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and on all the vessels...

Numbers 9:13 But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and declines to keep the passover...

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Hebrews 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh:

lay them up

Numbers 19:17 And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin...

a water of separation. That is, water prepared by being mixed with the ashes of the heifer, and set apart for the special purpose of being sprinkled on those who had contracted any legal defilement. To this rite the apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews.

Numbers 9:13,14 But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and declines to keep the passover...

pointedly alludes: `for if,' says he, `the blood of bulls and or goats,' alluding, probably, to the sin-offerings and the scape-goat,`and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the uncleaned, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Sprit, offered himself without spot unto God,purge your conscience from dead works

Numbers 19:13,20,21 Whoever touches the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifies not himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD...

Numbers 6:12 And he shall consecrate to the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering...

Numbers 31:23,24 Every thing that may abide the fire, you shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean...

Leviticus 15:20 And every thing that she lies on in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sits on shall be unclean.

Zechariah 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.

2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit...