Numbers 19:15

15 Every container that is opened that does not have a lid cord on it [is] unclean.

Numbers 19:15 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 19:15

And every open vessel
An earthen one, as the Targum of Jonathan; and so Jarchi interprets it; and Maimonides ^F18 observes, that this is only to be understood of an earthen vessel:

which hath no covering bound upon it;
a linen or a woollen cloth wrapped and tied about it:

[is] unclean;
the air of the house getting into it by its being uncovered.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 In Misn. Cholin, c. 1. sect. 6.

Numbers 19:15 In-Context

13 Anyone who touches a corpse, the person of a human being who died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of Yahweh, and that person will be cut off from Israel because the waters of impurity were not sprinkled on him. He will still be unclean, and uncleanness [is] on him.

14 " 'This [is] the law of a person who dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and all who [are] in the tent will be unclean seven days.

15 Every container that is opened that does not have a lid cord on it [is] unclean.

16 Anyone {in the open field} who touches {one who has been slain}, or a corpse, or a bone of a person, or a burial site, he will be unclean for seven days.

17 For the unclean [person] they will take from the powder of the {burnt purification offering}, and they will put running water into a container.

Footnotes

• [a] That is, "that does not have a lid tied shut"