Numbers 31:23

23 everything that passeth through the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean; only it shall be purified with the water of separation; and everything that cannot pass through the fire ye shall make go through the water.

Numbers 31:23 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 31:23

Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go
through the fire
Either through the smoke of the fire, and so be purified by suffumigation; or be put into the fire itself, where though they might be melted as the above things, yet not consumed as raiment, and vessels of skins, goats' hair, and wood, would be:

and it shall be clean;
accounted so:

nevertheless, it shall be purified with the water of separation;
with the water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer burnt, and sprinkled on it; see ( Numbers 19:9 )

and all that abideth not the fire;
without being consumed, as whatsoever is of wood

ye shall make go through the water;
dip them in it, and rinse them there with a quantity sufficient; which the Targum of Jonathan says is forty seahs of water.

Numbers 31:23 In-Context

21 And Eleazar the priest said to the men of war that had gone to the battle, This is the statute of the law which Jehovah hath commanded Moses.
22 Only the gold, and the silver, the copper, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
23 everything that passeth through the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean; only it shall be purified with the water of separation; and everything that cannot pass through the fire ye shall make go through the water.
24 And ye shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean; and afterwards ye may come into the camp.
25 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

Footnotes 2

The Darby Translation is in the public domain.