Water of purification

The water of purification refers to lustral water used in various Levitical ceremonies of ritual cleansing. In Numbers 8:7, God instructs Moses to cleanse the Levites before their consecration to tabernacle service: "sprinkle water of purifying upon them." More broadly, Levitical law prescribed washings with water for purification from numerous sources of uncleanness, including contact with a corpse, the completion of a period of skin disease, bodily discharge, and contact with carcasses of unclean animals (Leviticus 11–15). The most elaborate purification water was the water of separation prepared with the ashes of a red heifer (Numbers 19), which could remove the impurity of death. Zechariah 13:1 prophesies a future "fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness," which the New Testament understands as fulfilled in the cleansing work of Christ (1 John 1:7; Hebrews 9:13–14).