Numbers 19:11-21

11 He that toucheth a dead person, any dead body of a man, shall be unclean seven days.
12 He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.
13 Whoever toucheth a dead person, the dead body of a man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel; for the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him: he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.
14 This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: every one that cometh into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.
15 And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, shall be unclean.
16 And every one that toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead person, or the bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
17 And they shall take for the unclean of the ashes of the purification-offering that hath been burned, and shall put running water thereon in a vessel;
18 and a clean man shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and upon all the utensils, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that hath touched the bone, or the one slain, or the dead person, or the grave;
19 and the clean shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day; and he shall purify him on the seventh day; and he shall wash his garments, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.
20 And the man that is unclean, and doth not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the congregation, for he hath defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah: the water of separation hath not been sprinkled on him: he is unclean.
21 And it shall be an everlasting statute unto them. And he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his garments, and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even.

Numbers 19:11-21 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.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Lit. 'soul.'
  • [b]. Lit. 'purify from sin;' and so all through this passage.
  • [c]. Lit. 'on the face of the fields.'
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.