Numbers 31:23

23 every thing that may endure the fire, ye shall cause to pass through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless, ye shall remove the sin with the water of separation; and all that does not endure the fire ye shall cause to go through the water.

Numbers 31:23 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 31:23

Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go
through the fire
Either through the smoke of the fire, and so be purified by suffumigation; or be put into the fire itself, where though they might be melted as the above things, yet not consumed as raiment, and vessels of skins, goats' hair, and wood, would be:

and it shall be clean;
accounted so:

nevertheless, it shall be purified with the water of separation;
with the water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer burnt, and sprinkled on it; see ( Numbers 19:9 )

and all that abideth not the fire;
without being consumed, as whatsoever is of wood

ye shall make go through the water;
dip them in it, and rinse them there with a quantity sufficient; which the Targum of Jonathan says is forty seahs of water.

Numbers 31:23 In-Context

21 And Eleazar, the priest, said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commanded Moses;

22 certainly the gold and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

23 every thing that may endure the fire, ye shall cause to pass through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless, ye shall remove the sin with the water of separation; and all that does not endure the fire ye shall cause to go through the water.

24 Ye shall also wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterwards ye shall come into the camp.

25 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,