A literal translation of The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a burnt calf are sprinkled on the people who are ritually unclean might suggest that all of these substances were mixed together and then sprinkled on the people. In reality, the reference is to quite different events. In addition, the passive expression are sprinkled must be changed into an active form in some languages, and this would mean that “the priests” would need to be introduced as the agents. Therefore the first part of verse 13 might be rendered as “The priests sprinkled on the people who are ritually unclean the blood of goats, and the blood of bulls, and the ashes of a calf which has been completely burned.”
Bulls probably refers to the “young (male) bullock” (Lev 16.3) which Aaron had to offer as a sin offering for himself and his family. The writer does not clearly distinguish this from the burnt calf, which is the “red heifer” (female) described in Numbers 19.1-10 (Revised Standard Version). In both cases only one animal was sacrificed at a time. A comparison of 9.12 “goats and calves” New English Bible; 9.13 goats and bulls; 9.19 “calves” New English Bible (some manuscripts “calves and goats”); and 10.4 bulls and goats, shows that the author is not concerned either with particular animals or with consistency in this respect. Here as elsewhere, the translator of Hebrews must not distort its meaning in order to conform more closely to the Old Testament text.
Sprinkled in the Greek refers grammatically only to ashes, which were mixed with water, but the meaning must include the blood of goats and bulls also. “Sprinkling,” in Greek as in English, is more often associated with liquids like blood than with a powder such as ash. The writer may be remembering that according to Numbers 19.9 the ashes were mixed with water. In any case, translators should use the most suitable expression in their language for scattering a powder. It may be necessary to use two different verbs and translate “The blood of goats and bulls is sprinkled, and the ashes of the burnt calf are scattered….” It may even be necessary to expand the text to include “mixed with water.”
On a first reading, Good News Translation seems very different from the literal translation of Revised Standard Version, but Good News Bible simply brings out more clearly the fact that the text is speaking of ritual impurity, not moral impurity. Good News Translation fourth edition makes this even clearer by replacing Good News Bible third edition “make them clean” with this purifies them (similarly in verses 10, 14, 22, 23; 10.2). In other words, the “sprinkling” serves to put people back into a state in which they could once again legally take part in Temple worship. This has nothing to do with inward consciousness of moral sin, so there is no contradiction with 10.4.
The pronominal reference of this in the statement this purifies them might suggest that only one action is involved in the preceding statement. It may therefore be necessary to use some kind of plural reference; for example, “these actions” or “these ceremonies.”
The term purifies indicates the removal of what may be called “negative taboo,” that is to say, anything which defiles. In some languages purifies is expressed as “takes away that which defiles.” Accordingly, this purifies them by taking away their ritual impurity may be expressed as “these actions take away from the people all that causes them to be defiled” or “… causes them to be unclean.” In this context, however, a term meaning “unclean” must refer to ritual uncleanness and not to physical dirt.
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .