RED HEIFER. - A particular rite ordained by God during the Israelites' journey from Sinai to Kadesh.
A "red heifer," without blemish, without any defect, which had never borne a yoke (*Num. 19:2*), was to be brought to Aaron, and in the presence of Eleazar, son of Aaron (in which event one may see an ancient precedent for the later attested existence [2 Kings 23:4; 25:18] of a substitute for the high priest), it was to be slaughtered outside the camp. With its blood, seven sprinklings were to be made toward the "tent of meeting." Then the whole animal was to be burned in fire, to which cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet threads (for binding the bundles) were to be added. The collected ashes, deposited in a designated place in the camp, were to be at the disposal of the people "to make the water of purification" (*Num. 19:2-10*), naturally by mixing the ashes with water.
The principal details of the rite allude to a gift of life in opposition to death: the female sex of the animal, a giver of life; immunity from the yoke, a symbol of fresh vigor (cf. *Deut. 21:3; 1 Sam. 6:7*); the redness of the soul and the cords, an allusion to blood, in which life circulates. Similar symbolism is found among other Eastern peoples in sacrificial and apotropaic rites, as well as the "purificatory" use of ashes. The archaic character of the complex is evident. There is no record of the rite's continuity, but the reference to it in the *Epistle to the Hebrews* in a beautiful application to the Blood of Christ (*Heb. 13-14*), more as a practice than as a text, supports the affirmative.
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