Numbers 19:6
The priest shall also take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet twice dyed, and cast it into the flame, with which the cow is consumed.
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The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Lignum quoque cedrinum, et hyssopum, coccumque bis tinctum sacerdos mittet in flammam, quæ vaccam vorat.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ λήμψεται ὁ ἱερεὺς ξύλον κέδρινον καὶ ὕσσωπον καὶ κόκκινον, καὶ ἐμβαλοῦσιν εἰς μέσον τοῦ κατακαύματος τῆς δαμάλεως.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְלָקַ֣ח הַכֹּהֵ֗ן עֵ֥ץ אֶ֛רֶז וְאֵז֖וֹב וּשְׁנִ֣י תוֹלָ֑עַת וְהִשְׁלִ֕יךְ אֶל תּ֖וֹךְ שְׂרֵפַ֥ת הַפָּרָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Dyed, with which the cedar and hyssop were tied together, as being deemed most proper instruments of purifications, Leviticus xiv. 4, 49. St. Paul informs us, (Hebrews ix. 19,) that Moses thus sprinkled the people and the book: and branches of this description were probably used when the people took this holy water, ver. 18. The ashes intimate, that those who have sinned, may be purified by the sacrament of penance, ver. 9. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
12. I linger long in the land of the midday sun for it was there and then that the spouse found her bridegroom at rest and Joseph drank wine with his brothers once more. I will return to Jerusalem and, passing through Tekoa the home of Amos, I will look upon the glistening cross of Mount Olivet from which the Saviour made His ascension to the Father. Here year by year a red heifer was burned as a holocaust to the Lord and its ashes were used to purify the children of Israel. Here also according to Ezekiel the Cherubim after leaving the temple founded the church of the Lord.