Numbers 19:11-16

11 “Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days.

12 They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean.

13 If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the LORD’s tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean; their uncleanness remains on them.

14 “This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days,

15 and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.

16 “Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

Numbers 19:11-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 19

This chapter contains a law for making a water for purification for sin, the ingredients of which are the ashes of a red heifer burnt, about which many things are observed, Nu 19:1-10; the use of the water made of them, to purify such as were unclean by the touch of a dead body, Nu 19:11-13; some rules are given, by which it might be known who were unclean on account of a dead body, Nu 19:14-16; the manner of purifying such persons, Nu 19:17-19; and the punishment of those that should neglect purification, Nu 19:20-22.

Cross References

• 1. S Leviticus 21:1; Numbers 5:2
• 2. S Leviticus 8:33; Numbers 31:19
• 3. ver 19; Numbers 31:19
• 4. ver 20; 2 Chronicles 26:21
• 5. S Leviticus 21:11; Leviticus 20:3
• 6. S Leviticus 15:31; 2 Chronicles 36:14; Psalms 79:1
• 7. Leviticus 7:20; Leviticus 22:3
• 8. ver 22; Haggai 2:13
• 9. S Leviticus 6:28
• 10. Numbers 31:19
• 11. 1 Kings 13:2; 2 Kings 23:14; Ezekiel 6:5
• 12. 2 Kings 23:6; Matthew 23:27
• 13. S Leviticus 5:3