atonement, and the water of purification. When "the anointed priest" had sinned, he took of the blood of the _sacrifice_, and _sprinkled_ it before the vail of the sanctuary, Lev. iv. 6; comp. v. 16, 17. The high priest had, every year, on the great day of atonement, to sprinkle the _blood_ before the Ark of the Covenant, in order to obtain forgiveness for the people. Lev. xvi. 14, comp. also vers. 18, 19: "And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it (the altar) with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of 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 ῥαντισμὸς αἵματος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Farther, in Heb. x. 22: ἐῤῥαντισμένοι τὰς καρδίας ἀπὸ συνειδήσεως πονηρᾶς; xii. 24: καὶ αἵματι ῥαντισμοῦ κρεῖττον λαλοῦντι παρὰ τὸν Ἅβελ, and also in chap. ix. 13, 14.