Numbers 19:18

18 in which when a clean man hath dipped hyssop, he shall sprinkle therewith the tent, and all the purtenance of the household, and the men also defouled with such defouling (and also anyone defiled with such defilement).

Numbers 19:18 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 19:18

And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water,
&c.] Three stalks of hyssop bound together, as the Targum of Jonathan, and this man was to be a clean priest, according to the same; but it does not seem necessary that he should be a priest, but that anyone free from ceremonial pollution might do it:

and sprinkle it upon the tent;
where there was a dead body: but this, we are told, is to be understood not of a tent made of wood, or stone, or clay, but made of anything woven, as linen: or of skins F21:

and upon all the vessels;
in such a tent, that is, open ones, as before observed:

and upon the persons that were there:
when the man died in it, or came into it since, and while the dead body was in it;

and upon him that touched a bone;
of a dead man, or, as the Targum of Jonathan, the bone of a living man that is separated from him:

or one slain, or one dead;
slain with a sword, or dead of the pestilence, as the same Targum, or of any other disease, or in any other way:

or a grave;
or the covering or side of one, as the same Targum adds.


FOOTNOTES:

F21 Maimon. in Misn. Sabbat, c. 2. sect. 3.

Numbers 19:18 In-Context

16 If any man toucheth the dead body of a man slain in the field, either dead by himself, either a bone of him, either his sepulchre, he shall be unclean by seven days. (If anyone toucheth the dead body of someone killed in the field, that is, outside, or who hath died naturally, or who toucheth one of their bones, or their grave, or their tomb, they shall be unclean for seven days.)
17 And they shall take of the ashes of the burning, and of the sin (offering), that is, of the cow offered for sin, and they shall put quick waters into a vessel, upon those ashes; (And they shall take some of the ashes from the burning of that sin offering, that is, some of the ashes of the cow offered for sin, and they shall put those ashes into a vessel with fresh water;)
18 in which when a clean man hath dipped hyssop, he shall sprinkle therewith the tent, and all the purtenance of the household, and the men also defouled with such defouling (and also anyone defiled with such defilement).
19 And in this manner a clean man shall cleanse an unclean thing, in the third (day) and in the seventh day; and he shall be cleansed in the seventh day. And he shall wash himself, and his clothes, and he shall be unclean till to eventide. (And in this manner a clean man shall sprinkle an unclean thing on the third day, and on the seventh day; and it shall be clean on the seventh day. And then he shall wash himself, and his clothes, but he shall be unclean until the evening.)
20 If any man is not cleansed by this custom, (or rite,) the soul of him shall perish from the midst of the church (that person shall be cut off, or shall be put out, from among the congregation); for he defouleth the saintuary of the Lord, and he is not sprinkled with the water of cleansing.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.