Numbers 19:13

13 All those who touch a dead body and do not purify themselves in the proper way defile the LORD ’s Tabernacle, and they will be cut off from the community of Israel. Since the water of purification was not sprinkled on them, their defilement continues.

Numbers 19:13 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 19:13

Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and
purifieth not himself
With the ashes of the heifer, or water of purification, and so neglects the means which God has appointed for his cleansing:

defileth the tabernacle of the Lord;
that is, if he goes into it in his uncleanness, which it was not lawful for him to do: from the Jews the Assyrians seem to have borrowed some customs of theirs, as related by Lucian ^F18, who upon burying a dead cock reckoned seven days, see ( Numbers 19:11 ) ; and then went into the temple, for before they might not go in, nor perform holy service; such laws they use, that if anyone sees a dead carcass, he may not go that day into the temple; but he goes in the day following, after he has purified himself:

and that soul shall be cut off from Israel;
either be excommunicated from the church, or die by the hand of the civil magistrate, or by the immediate hand of God; that is, if he knew he had touched a dead body, and wilfully neglected the means of his purification, and so sinned presumptuously; otherwise, if all this was done ignorantly, an atonement was made for it, ( Leviticus 5:3-6 )

because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be
unclean;
as all are who are not sprinkled with the blood of Christ:

his uncleanness is yet upon him;
and will remain, nothing can remove it; as nothing can remove the stain and blot of sin but the blood of Christ; and where that is not applied it will remain marked before God, and will lie upon the sinner to his utter condemnation and ruin; see ( Jeremiah 2:22 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 De Dea Syria.

Numbers 19:13 In-Context

11 “All those who touch a dead human body will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.

12 They must purify themselves on the third and seventh days with the water of purification; then they will be purified. But if they do not do this on the third and seventh days, they will continue to be unclean even after the seventh day.

13 All those who touch a dead body and do not purify themselves in the proper way defile the LORD ’s Tabernacle, and they will be cut off from the community of Israel. Since the water of purification was not sprinkled on them, their defilement continues.

14 “This is the ritual law that applies when someone dies inside a tent: All those who enter that tent and those who were inside when the death occurred will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.

15 Any open container in the tent that was not covered with a lid is also defiled.