Bible Strands
Numbers 19:4
Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses directs Eleazar the priest to perform a ritual act after the red heifer has been slaughtered outside the camp. The priest carries out this duty in the same location where the animal's remains will subsequently be burned.
The words — וְ/הִזָּ֞ה (ve./hi.Zah) means "and he will spatter," denoting the specific casting motion of the blood. נֹ֨כַח (No.khach) translates literally to "before" or "toward the front," marking the direction of the application relative to the Tent of Meeting.
The thread — This seven-time sprinkling pattern appears in Leviticus 4:6, Leviticus 4:17, and Leviticus 16:14, where priests similarly apply blood before the LORD or the veil.
Why it lands — The text commands a precise, repeated physical action that establishes ritual procedure through direct priestly handling of the blood. Readers must follow the exact sequence of slaughter, application, and burning without importing external theological assumptions.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times:
Cross-references
- Leviticus 4:6 The priest is to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the LORD, in front of the veil of the sanctuary.
- Leviticus 4:17 and he is to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD in front of the veil.
- Leviticus 16:14 And he is to take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the east side of the mercy seat; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the mercy seat.
- Leviticus 16:19 He is to sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.
- Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,
- Hebrews 12:24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
- 1 Peter 1:2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.