Numbers 19:11

11 "Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose dead body it is, will be unclean for seven days.

Numbers 19:11 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 19:11

He that toucheth the dead body of any man
A man and not a beast, as Aben Ezra observes; for he that touched the dead body of a beast was unclean only until evening, ( Leviticus 11:24 ) ; any man, Jew or Gentile, as the same writer notes: this is instanced in, as being the principal pollution, though not the only one, yet so some think, for which the water of purification made of the ashes of the burnt heifer was appointed:

shall be unclean seven days;
the reason of which is, because death is the fruit of sin, which is of a defiling nature, and to show that all that are dead in sins are defiled and defiling, and are not to be touched, or to have communion and fellowship held with them but to be abstained from.

Numbers 19:11 In-Context

9 A man who is clean is to collect the ashes of the heifer and store them outside the camp in a clean place. They are to be kept for the community of the people of Isra'el to prepare water for purification from sin.

10 The one who collected the ashes of the heifer is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. For the people of Isra'el and for the foreigner staying with them this will be a permanent regulation.

11 "Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose dead body it is, will be unclean for seven days.

12 He must purify himself with [these ashes] on the third and seventh days; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself the third and seventh days, he will not be clean.

13 Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose dead body it is, and does not purify himself has defiled the tabernacle of ADONAI. That person will be cut off from Isra'el, because the water for purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.