Reference: Heifer
American
Red heifers were to be offered in sacrifice for the national sins, in the impressive manner described in Nu 19:1-10, illustrating the true sacrifice for sin in the person of Christ, Heb 9:13-14. The well-fed heifer was a symbol of wanton wildness, Jer 46:20; 50:11; Ho 4:16.
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And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "This [is] the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the {Israelites} and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke {has not been placed}. read more. And you will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be brought out to a place outside the camp, and it will be slaughtered in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest will take [some of] its blood on his finger and spatter it toward the mouth of the tent of assembly seven times. The heifer will be burned in his sight; its skin, its meat, and its blood, in addition to its offal, will burn. The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson thread, and he will throw them in the midst of {the burning heifer}. The priest will wash his garments and his body in the water, and afterward he will come to the camp; the priest will be unclean until the evening. The one who burns it will wash his garments and his body in water; he will be unclean until the evening. A clean man will gather the ashes of the heifer, and he will put [them] in a clean {place outside the camp}; it will be for the community of the {Israelites} as a requirement for waters of impurity; it [is] a purification [offering]. The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer will wash his garments; he will be unclean until evening. It will be an eternal decree for the {Israelites} and for one who dwells as an alien in their midst.
Egypt [is] a beautiful heifer, [but] a gadfly from [the] north [will] come against her.
"Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and you neigh like the powerful stallions,
Indeed, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; Now Yahweh will feed them, like a lamb in broad pasture.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled sanctify [them] for the ritual purity of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve [the] living God?
Easton
Heb 'eglah, (De 21:4,6; Jer 46:20). Untrained to the yoke (Ho 10:11); giving milk (Isa 7:21); ploughing (Jg 14:18); treading out grain (Jer 50:11); unsubdued to the yoke an emblem of Judah (Isa 15:5; Jer 48:34).
Heb parah (Ge 41:2; Nu 19:2). Bearing the yoke (Ho 4:16); "heifers of Bashan" (Am 4:1), metaphorical for the voluptuous females of Samaria. The ordinance of sacrifice of the "red heifer" described in Nu 19:1-10; comp. Heb 9:13.
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And behold, seven cows, {well built and fat}, were coming up from the Nile, and they grazed among the reeds.
And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "This [is] the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the {Israelites} and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke {has not been placed}.
"This [is] the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the {Israelites} and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke {has not been placed}. And you will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be brought out to a place outside the camp, and it will be slaughtered in his presence. read more. Then Eleazar the priest will take [some of] its blood on his finger and spatter it toward the mouth of the tent of assembly seven times. The heifer will be burned in his sight; its skin, its meat, and its blood, in addition to its offal, will burn. The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson thread, and he will throw them in the midst of {the burning heifer}. The priest will wash his garments and his body in the water, and afterward he will come to the camp; the priest will be unclean until the evening. The one who burns it will wash his garments and his body in water; he will be unclean until the evening. A clean man will gather the ashes of the heifer, and he will put [them] in a clean {place outside the camp}; it will be for the community of the {Israelites} as a requirement for waters of impurity; it [is] a purification [offering]. The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer will wash his garments; he will be unclean until evening. It will be an eternal decree for the {Israelites} and for one who dwells as an alien in their midst.
and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a {wadi that flows with water all year} and [that] has not been plowed and has not been sown; [then] {there they shall break the neck of the heifer in the wadi}.
And all of the elders of that city nearest to the slain person shall wash their hands over the heifer [with] the broken neck in the wadi.
The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went [down], "What [is] sweeter than honey? What [is] stronger than a lion?" And he said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle."
And this shall happen: on that day, a young man will keep a young cow of [the] herd and two sheep alive.
My heart cries out for Moab; its fugitives [flee] up to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For [at] the ascent of Luhith it goes up it with weeping; for [on] the road of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.
Egypt [is] a beautiful heifer, [but] a gadfly from [the] north [will] come against her.
From the cry for help of Heshbon, up to Elealeh, up to Jahaz, they give their voice, from Zoar up to Horonaim, [up to] Eglath-shelishiyah, for even the waters of Nimrim have become as a desolation.
"Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and you neigh like the powerful stallions,
Indeed, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; Now Yahweh will feed them, like a lamb in broad pasture.
Ephraim [was] a trained heifer, that loved to thresh [grain], and I myself {spared} the fairness of her neck; I will make Ephraim break the ground, Judah will plow, Jacob must till for himself.
Hear this word, [you] cows of Bashan who [live] on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the powerless, who crush the poor, who say to their husbands, "Bring [something] so that we may drink!"
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled sanctify [them] for the ritual purity of the flesh,
Fausets
eglah, parah. Used, not for plowing, but for the easier work of treading out grain. Cattle were not yoked together but trod it singly, or drew a threshing sledge over it, and were free to eat of it, being unmuzzled (De 25:4). An image of Israel's freedom and prosperity; but, saith God, "I passed over upon her fair neck," i.e. I will put the Assyrian yoke upon it (Ho 10:11); in Ho 4:16 translated "Israel is refractory (tossing off the yoke) as a refractory heifer." She had represented God under the calf form (1Ki 12:28), but it is herself who is one, refractory and untamed (Am 4:1). "Ye kine (cows, feminine, marking effeminacy) of Bashan," richly fed, effeminate, nobles of Israel; compare Am 3:9-10,12,15.
Jeremiah (Jer 46:20) says "Egypt is like a very fair heifer" appropriately, as Apis was worshipped there under the form of a fair bull with certain spots; in Jer 46:15 Septuagint and Vulgate read "thy valiant one," namely, Apis. As the gadfly attacks the heifer so "destruction cometh" on Egypt, namely, Nebuchadnezzar the destroyer or agitator sent by Jehovah; Vulgate translated suitably to the image of a heifer, "a goader," qerets. Harassing severely may be meant, rather than utter destruction. Isa 15:5, Moab's "fugitives shah flee unto Zoar," on the extreme boundary S. of the Dead Sea, raising their voices as "an heifer of three years old," i.e. one in full vigor but not yet brought under the yoke, just as Moab heretofore unsubdued is now about to be subjugated. Maurer translated "Eglath shehshijah" as "the third Eglath", to distinguish it from two others of the name.
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"You shall not muzzle an ox {when he is threshing}.
And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them, "{You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough}; here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."
My heart cries out for Moab; its fugitives [flee] up to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For [at] the ascent of Luhith it goes up it with weeping; for [on] the road of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.
Egypt [is] a beautiful heifer, [but] a gadfly from [the] north [will] come against her.
Indeed, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; Now Yahweh will feed them, like a lamb in broad pasture.
Ephraim [was] a trained heifer, that loved to thresh [grain], and I myself {spared} the fairness of her neck; I will make Ephraim break the ground, Judah will plow, Jacob must till for himself.
Proclaim to the citadel fortresses in Ashdod and the citadel fortresses in the land of Egypt and say: "Gather on the mountains of Samaria and see the great panic in her midst and the oppression in her midst!" "They do not know [how] to do right," {declares Yahweh}, "those who store up violence and destruction in their citadel fortresses."
Thus says Yahweh, "Just as the shepherd rescues two legs or a piece of an ear from the mouth of the lion, so shall the {people} of Israel who dwell in Samaria, with the corner of a couch and the damask of a bed."
I will ruin the winter house as well as the summer house, and the houses of ivory will perish and the great houses shall come to an end," {declares} Yahweh.
Hear this word, [you] cows of Bashan who [live] on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the powerless, who crush the poor, who say to their husbands, "Bring [something] so that we may drink!"
Hastings
The heifer was used in agriculture (Jg 14:18; Jer 50:11; Ho 10:11), and in religious ritual (Ge 15:9; 1Sa 16:2; Nu 19:2 f. etc.). Israel is compared to a heifer in Ho 4:16, and so is Egypt in Jer 46:20, and Chald
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And he said to him, "Take for me a three-year-old heifer, and a three-year-old female goat, and a three-year-old ram, and a turtledove and a young pigeon."
"This [is] the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the {Israelites} and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke {has not been placed}.
The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went [down], "What [is] sweeter than honey? What [is] stronger than a lion?" And he said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle."
Egypt [is] a beautiful heifer, [but] a gadfly from [the] north [will] come against her.
"Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and you neigh like the powerful stallions,
"Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and you neigh like the powerful stallions,
Indeed, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; Now Yahweh will feed them, like a lamb in broad pasture.
Ephraim [was] a trained heifer, that loved to thresh [grain], and I myself {spared} the fairness of her neck; I will make Ephraim break the ground, Judah will plow, Jacob must till for himself.
Morish
A young cow, which is several times alluded to as 'three years old,' as if that was the age when they began to be broken in for labour. Ge 15:9; Isa 15:5; Jer 48:34. They were not usually offered as sacrifices; but it was appointed that one should be slain when an unknown murder was discovered in a field, to put away the guilt of shedding innocent blood. De 21:1-9. Various symbolical references are made to the heifer. Samson called his wife a heifer with which others had ploughed to discover his riddle. Jg 14:18. Egypt was like a 'very fair heifer;' and Israel was a 'backsliding or untractable heifer,' though it had been taught and loved to tread out the corn. Jer 46:20; 50:11; Ho 4:16; 10:11.
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And he said to him, "Take for me a three-year-old heifer, and a three-year-old female goat, and a three-year-old ram, and a turtledove and a young pigeon."
"If someone slain is found in the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to take possession of it [and] [is] lying in the field, [and] it is not known who {killed him}, then your elders and your judges shall go out and shall measure [the distance] to the cities that [are] around the slain one. read more. {And then} the nearest city to the slain one, the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked with [in the field], that has not pulled a yoke, and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a {wadi that flows with water all year} and [that] has not been plowed and has not been sown; [then] {there they shall break the neck of the heifer in the wadi}. Then the priests, the descendants of Levi, shall come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to bless in the name of Yahweh, and every legal dispute and every [case of] assault will be {subject to their ruling}. And all of the elders of that city nearest to the slain person shall wash their hands over the heifer [with] the broken neck in the wadi. And they shall declare, and they shall say, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see [what was done]. Forgive your people, Israel, whom you redeemed, Yahweh, and [do] not {allow} the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, and let them be forgiven [with regard to] blood.' And [so] you shall purge the innocent blood from your midst, because you must do the right thing in the eyes of Yahweh.
The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went [down], "What [is] sweeter than honey? What [is] stronger than a lion?" And he said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle."
My heart cries out for Moab; its fugitives [flee] up to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For [at] the ascent of Luhith it goes up it with weeping; for [on] the road of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.
Egypt [is] a beautiful heifer, [but] a gadfly from [the] north [will] come against her.
From the cry for help of Heshbon, up to Elealeh, up to Jahaz, they give their voice, from Zoar up to Horonaim, [up to] Eglath-shelishiyah, for even the waters of Nimrim have become as a desolation.
"Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and you neigh like the powerful stallions,
Indeed, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; Now Yahweh will feed them, like a lamb in broad pasture.
Ephraim [was] a trained heifer, that loved to thresh [grain], and I myself {spared} the fairness of her neck; I will make Ephraim break the ground, Judah will plow, Jacob must till for himself.
Smith
Heifer.
1Sa 6:7-12; Job 21:10; Isa 7:21
The heifer or young cow was not commonly used for ploughing, but only for treading out the corn.
but see Judg 14:18 when it ran about without any headstall,
De 26:4
hence the expression an "unbroken heifer,"
Authorized Version "backsliding" to which Israel is compared.
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Then the priest takes the basket from your hand and places it {before} the altar of Yahweh your God.
The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went [down], "What [is] sweeter than honey? What [is] stronger than a lion?" And he said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle."
So then, {prepare} one new utility cart and two milking cows that have never had a yoke on them, and you must harness the cows to the utility cart and then turn their calves from following them to their stall. And you must take the ark of Yahweh and place it on the utility cart with the gold objects that you [are] returning to him as a guilt offering. You must place [them] in the container beside [the ark] and then send it [off] so that it goes away. read more. You must watch; if it goes up by the way of its territory to Beth Shemesh, he has caused this great disaster to [come on] us. But if not, then we will know his hand has not struck us; it [was by] chance [that] this happened to us. So the men did so; they took two milking cows and harnessed them to the utility cart, but they shut up their calves in the stall. Then they put the ark of Yahweh on the utility cart with the container [holding] the gold mice and the images of their tumors. The cows went straight on the way on the road to Beth Shemesh, on the one main road, {lowing as they went}. They did not turn aside to the right or to the left, and the rulers of [the] Philistines [were] walking after them up to the border of Beth Shemesh.
His bull breeds and does not fail; his cow calves and does not miscarry.
And this shall happen: on that day, a young man will keep a young cow of [the] herd and two sheep alive.
Indeed, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; Now Yahweh will feed them, like a lamb in broad pasture.
Ephraim [was] a trained heifer, that loved to thresh [grain], and I myself {spared} the fairness of her neck; I will make Ephraim break the ground, Judah will plow, Jacob must till for himself.
Watsons
HEIFER, a young cow, used in sacrifice at the temple, Nu 19:1-10. Moses and Aaron were instructed to deliver the divine command to the children of Israel that they should procure "a red heifer, without spot," that is, one that was entirely red, without one spot of any other colour; "free from blemish, and on which the yoke had never yet come," that is, which had never yet been employed in ploughing the ground or in any other work; for according to the common sense of all mankind, those animals which had been made to serve other uses, became unfit to be offered to God,
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And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "This [is] the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the {Israelites} and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke {has not been placed}. read more. And you will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be brought out to a place outside the camp, and it will be slaughtered in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest will take [some of] its blood on his finger and spatter it toward the mouth of the tent of assembly seven times. The heifer will be burned in his sight; its skin, its meat, and its blood, in addition to its offal, will burn. The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson thread, and he will throw them in the midst of {the burning heifer}. The priest will wash his garments and his body in the water, and afterward he will come to the camp; the priest will be unclean until the evening. The one who burns it will wash his garments and his body in water; he will be unclean until the evening. A clean man will gather the ashes of the heifer, and he will put [them] in a clean {place outside the camp}; it will be for the community of the {Israelites} as a requirement for waters of impurity; it [is] a purification [offering]. The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer will wash his garments; he will be unclean until evening. It will be an eternal decree for the {Israelites} and for one who dwells as an alien in their midst.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled sanctify [them] for the ritual purity of the flesh,