The Douay-Rheims with the Glossa Ordinaria

¹And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

²This is the observance of the victim, which the Lord hath ordained. Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee a red cow of full age, in which there is no blemish, and which hath not carried the yoke:

³And you shall deliver her to Eleazar the priest, who shall bring her forth without the camp, and shall immolate her in the sight of all:

v.3

VERS. 3.-- *And you shall deliver her.* The heifer is delivered to the priest to be immolated, because the Lord incarnate made himself a sacrifice for our redemption, being given into the hands of the Jewish people. Another reading. *And thou shalt give her to Eleazar the priest,* etc. Why not to Aaron? Perhaps it was prefigured that the passion of the Lord should come, not to the time which then was, but to those that came after of this priesthood. *Who, when she is cast out without the camp.* Because Christ suffered without the gate, that he might lead us out from the conversation of the present life as out of a city. *And her, being cast out without the camp.* So was the Lord, being about to suffer, cast out without the city. *Into a clean place,* because he had no evil cause: *And they shall kill her in his sight,* so was the flesh of Christ slain in the sight of those who were to be priests of the Lord in the new testament. *He shall immolate.* None will be able to immolate the red heifer (whose ashes are the expiation of the people) save he who has not done earthly works, and has not drawn the yoke of transgression, and has not been bound with the chains of sins. *In the sight of all.* Because Christ was as it were extinguished in the sight of all: immolated in the sight of the Father, because what before the eyes of men was a punishment, this before the eyes of the Father was a sacrifice.

⁴And dipping his finger in her blood, shall sprinkle it over against the door of the tabernacle seven times,

v.4

VERS. 4.-- *And dipping his finger in her blood.* Another reading. *And Eleazar shall take of her blood, and shall sprinkle of her blood seven times toward the face of the testimony.* Because Christ according to the Scriptures shed his blood unto the remission of sins, therefore toward the face of the tabernacle of the testimony, because it was declared not otherwise than it had been foretold by the divine testimony. And therefore seven times, because that very number pertains to spiritual cleansing. By the finger the discretion of working is signified: to dip the finger in the blood of the heifer is that our works be consecrated in the passion of the Lord, so that we may imitate his passion, which we know: *For he suffered, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps*. Eleazar the priest immolates, and dips his finger in the blood, because the Jewish people, on the side of the reprobate, persecuted the humility of the Lord even unto the passion. But in the elect it imitated the working of his humility *He shall sprinkle toward the doors of the tabernacle.* The tabernacle signifies the synagogue. He therefore who has dipped his finger, let him sprinkle toward the doors of the tabernacle, that is, whosoever imitates the ways of his passion, let him hold forth to the synagogue, which believes not and resists, by good examples and by right preaching, a sign of living well. *He shall sprinkle,* that is, to the resisting people he shall show, by right preaching and by works, the examples of the passion of Christ. *Seven times.* Because there are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which through the blood of Christ are distributed upon the peoples of the Church, in which they are cleansed from every offence. * Seven times,* etc. In the number seven perfection is signified or received, whence also in seven days the whole of time is fulfilled, and the Holy Spirit is called sevenfold. To dip the finger seven times in the blood, therefore, is to imitate the mystery of the passion by a perfect working. And to sprinkle seven times toward the synagogue is to announce the passion to unbelievers by a perfect preaching.

⁵And shall burn her in the sight of all delivering up to the fire her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, and her dung.

v.5

VERS. 5.-- *And he shall burn her in the sight of all.* By the skin and the flesh and the blood and the dung are signified the sacrifices held in the old testament, which announced the weakness of the Lord. Because all these things, being afterwards understood spiritually by the fathers, were, in respect of the outward mystery, called dung, whence Paul: *He counteth all things as dung*, which are delivered to the flames. For although they were first exhibited carnally, afterwards through the Holy Spirit they were consumed by the fire of understanding. *And they shall burn her in his sight.* I think that the burning pertains to the sign of the resurrection. For it is the nature of fire to move toward the things above, and that what is burnt be turned into itself. For to burn is itself a word drawn from the Greek into the Latin from hanging. But what is added, in his sight, that is, in the sight of the priest, seems to signify this, that the resurrection of Christ appeared to those who were to be a royal priesthood. *As well her skin and her flesh,* etc. But that which follows: *her skin and her flesh and her blood with her dung shall be burnt:* by this it is set forth how she shall be burnt, and it is signified that not only the substance of the mortal body of Christ, which is intimated by the mention of the skin and of the flesh and of the blood, but also the contumely and abjection of the people, which was signified in the dung, should be turned into the glory which the flame of the burning signifies. By the skin and the flesh is signified the outward working of Christ: by the blood, the subtle and inward power which quickens the outward deeds; by the dung, weariness, thirst, hunger, and the fear of death, and whatsoever he willed to suffer of his humanity. For whatsoever he had by the defect of mortality was to be cast away in him as dung; all which things are to be burnt with fire, that is, to be understood according to the truth of the Holy Spirit, so that the things which were done by him bodily may be perceived to have been ordered through the incorporeal Spirit of his divinity.

⁶The priest shall also take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet twice dyed, and cast it into the flame, with which the cow is consumed.

v.6

VERS. 6.-- *Cedar wood also, and hyssop, and scarlet twice dyed.* Of the death of the holy things, therefore, the prophet sang: *Thou shalt sprinkle me, O Lord, with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed, thou shalt wash me,* etc., and he to whom such a mystery of expiation, which was to be through the blood of Christ, had been laid open, set forth: *The uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.* The cedar is a high and incorruptible wood. Hyssop is a very lowly herb, which nevertheless takes away the swelling of the lung. By the high cedar, therefore, persevering contemplation; by hyssop, the humility of a meek heart is signified. For he who is lifted up to the things above by contemplation ought, through the compassion of humility, to condescend to those beneath, and let him not raise himself up because of what he has, but let him willingly spend himself in preaching upon those who have it not. Another reading, etc., *as far as* that our life may be hidden with him. By the cedar hope can be understood, etc., *as far as* charity alone is multiplied in us to the last. Let it be cast into the flame, *as far as* that in it he may learn the right works which he should do *Hyssop* Baptism, because they were sprinkled with hyssop dipped in the blood of the lamb. *And scarlet twice dyed.* The scarlet twice dyed, the blood of Christ, by which we are washed in mind and in body. These three purge sins, the cedar, that is, faith in the cross; hyssop, baptism or martyrdom; the scarlet, the sacrament of the Lord's blood. In the scarlet twice dyed is expressed the virtue of charity, which, kindled by the flame of holy love, is commanded to be shown in two precepts, namely in the love of God and of one's neighbour. The scarlet twice dyed, therefore, is charity formed by a twofold precept, so that God is so loved that the neighbour be not forsaken, and the neighbour so loved that God be not despised. *The priest.* All we who believe in Christ are priests, whence: *But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood,* etc.. The high things therefore which we perceive through contemplation, and what we do out of the meekness of humility, what we show forth through the fire of charity, we ought to dip in the blood of the passion of Christ, that everything which is in us may imitate him from whom it is, because outside the imitation of the passion there is not so much virtue as vice. This priest, who burns the flesh, the skin, the blood and the dung of the heifer, can signify the order of the Jewish priesthood, together with the people set under it consenting to the slaying of the Lord, whence there follows: *And then at length, his garments and his body being washed.* VERS 7.-- *And then at length, his garments being washed.* It can be understood, etc., *as far as* rightly, *But a clean man shall gather up the ashes of the heifer,* etc. The priest shall wash his garments, etc., *as far as* committing her to the resurrection as it were to the burning.

⁷And then after washing his garments, and body, he shall enter into the camp, and shall be unclean until the evening.

⁸He also that hath burned her, shall wash his garments, and his body, and shall be unclean until the evening.

⁹And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the cow, and shall pour them forth without the camp in a most clean place, that they may be reserved for the multitude of the children of Israel, and for a water of aspersion: because the cow was burnt for sin.

v.9

VERS. 9.-- *But he shall gather up.* And a man shall gather together, etc., *as far as* because the honour of the Gospel shone forth outside the celebration of the Jewish custom. The priest burns the heifer, a clean man gathers the ashes, because the Jew slew the weakness of the Lord, the Gentile understands his subtle mysteries. They are clean who preach the passion of Christ to the Gentiles. *He shall pour them out.* Because the Gentile ceases not to preach the sacraments which he has come to know, but manifests them to those who know them not. A clean man pours out the ashes of the heifer in a most clean place, when any learned man taken up out of the Gentile world seeks out hearts of the Gentiles made clean through humility, and ceases not to deliver to them the mysteries of the Redeemer. And when this is done, the faith of the Gentiles is multiplied, the divine power is acknowledged, the discipline of the precepts is held fast. Whence he adds, *that they may be kept for the multitude of the children of Israel:* for Israel is interpreted a man seeing God; and rightly the converted Gentile world is called Israel, which already contemplates God by faith. *Without the camp.* Because all the Gentile world is outside the law, outside sacrifice, outside the synagogue. *Most clean.* Because the secrets of the Lord's incarnation are not to be delivered to depraved and polluted minds, but to those who, coming to the faith, have cleansed their heart. *To the multitude of the children* Another reading etc., *as far as* that being washed he might also in some fashion outwardly wash his garments.

¹⁰And when he that carried the ashes of the cow, hath washed his garments, he shall be unclean until the evening. The children of Israel, and the strangers that dwell among them, shall observe this for a holy thing by a perpetual ordinance.

¹¹He that toucheth the corpse of a man, and is therefore unclean seven days,

¹²Shall be sprinkled with this water on the third day, and on the seventh, and so shall be cleansed. If he were not sprinkled on the third day, he cannot be cleansed on the seventh.

¹³Every one that toucheth the corpse of a man, and is not sprinkled with this mixture, shall profane the tabernacle of the Lord, and shall perish out of Israel: because he was not sprinkled with the water of expiation, he shall be unclean, and his uncleanness shall remain upon him.

¹⁴This is the law of a man that dieth in a tent: All that go into his tent and all the vessels that are there, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁵The vessel that hath no cover, nor binding over it, shall be unclean.

¹⁶If any man in the field touch the corpse of a man that was slain, or that died of himself, or his bone, or his grave, he shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁷And they shall take of the ashes of the burning and of the sin offering, and shall pour living waters upon them into a vessel.

¹⁸And a man that is clean shall dip hyssop in them, and shall sprinkle therewith all the tent, and all the furniture, and the men that are defiled with touching any such thing:

¹⁹And in this manner he that is clean shall purify the unclean on the third and on the seventh day. And being expiated the seventh day, he shall wash both himself and his garments, and be unclean until the evening.

²⁰If any man be not expiated after this rite, his soul shall perish out of the midst of the church: because he hath profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, and was not sprinkled with the water of purification.

²¹This precept shall be an ordinance for ever. He also that sprinkled the water, shall wash his garments. Every one that shall touch the waters of expiation, shall be unclean until the evening.

²²Whatsoever a person toucheth who is unclean, he shall make it unclean: and the person that toucheth any of these things, shall be unclean until the evening.

Numbers 19

Before the first verse