the children of Israel." In the same manner the verb is
used of the sprinkling of blood upon the healed leper, Lev. xiv. 7, and
frequently. According to Numb. xix. 19, the _clean_ person shall
_sprinkle_ upon the unclean, on the third day, and on the seventh day,
"with the water in which are the ashes of the red heifer" when any one
has become unclean by touching a dead body. The outward material
purification frequently serves in the Old Testament to denote the
spiritual purification. Thus, _e.g._, in Ps. i. 9: "Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean;" Ezek. xxxvi. 25: "And I sprinkle clean
water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness." In
all those passages there lies, everywhere, at the foundation an
allusion to the Levitical purifications (the two last quoted especially
refer to Numb. xix.); and this allusion is by no means so to be
understood, as if he who makes the allusion were drawing the material
into the spiritual sphere. On the contrary, he uses as a figure that
which is, in the law, used symbolically. All the laws of purification
in the Pentateuch [Pg 269] have a symbolical and typical character.
That which was done to the outward impurity was, in point of fact, done
to the _sin_ which the people of the Old Testament, well versed in the
symbolical language, beheld under its image. Hence, here also, the
_sprinkling_ has the signification of _cleansing_ from sin. The
expression indicates that Christ is the true High Priest, to whom the
ordinary priesthood with its sprinklings typically pointed. The
expression is a summary of that which, in the following chapter, we are
told regarding the expiation through the suffering and death of the
Servant of God. The words: "When His soul maketh a sin-offering," in
ver. 10, and: "He shall justify," in ver. 11, correspond. Among the
ancient expositors, this translation is followed by the Syriac and
Vulgate, the _asperget_ of which _Jerome_ thus explains: "He shall
sprinkle many nations, cleansing them by His blood, and in baptism
consecrating them to the service of God." In the New Testament, it is
alluded to in several passages. Thus, in 1 Pet. i. 2, where the Apostle
speaks of the [Greek: rhantismos haimatos Iesou Christou]. Farther, in
Heb. x. 22: [Greek: erhrantismenoi tas kardias apo suneideseos
poneras]; xii. 24: [Greek: kai haimati rhantismou kreitton lalounti
para ton Abel], and also in chap. ix. 13, 14. Among Christian
interpreters, this view