Numbers 31:22

22 Everything that will not burn, such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead, is to be purified by passing it through fire. Everything else is to be purified by the water for purification.

Numbers 31:22 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 31:22

Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin,
and the lead.
] These are excepted, and, though unclean, are not to be purified by washing, but in another way, by fire, as follows; all these metals were well known in those early times, and were made use of for instruments and vessels of various sorts.

Numbers 31:22 In-Context

20 You must also purify every piece of clothing and everything made of leather, goats' hair, or wood."

21 Eleazar the priest said to the men who had returned from battle, "These are the regulations that the Lord has given to Moses.

22 Everything that will not burn, such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead, is to be purified by passing it through fire. Everything else is to be purified by the water for purification.

24 On the seventh day you must wash your clothes; then you will be ritually clean and will be permitted to enter the camp."