8:7 The ceremony to make the Levites ceremonially clean consisted of sprinkling with water, shaving all hair, and donning clean clothes; this resembled the ceremonies of cleansing from ritual defilement. • water of purification: This expression appears only here. This sprinkling symbolized the washing of sin from their lives and thus contained some of the symbolic significance of later Jewish washings and even of Christian baptism. Perhaps this water was the same as the sin-removing mixture that included ashes from the red heifer mentioned in 19:9 (see Heb 9:13). • The requirement to shave their entire body was also part of the process of being declared clean from the ritual impurity of defiling diseases (Lev 14:8). • The washing of clothing accompanied all instances of cleansing from ritual defilement (e.g., Lev 15:5-27).