Numbers 19:19

19 Then he is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days. On the seventh day he is considered cleansed. The cleansed person must then scrub his clothes and take a bath; by evening he is clean.

Numbers 19:19 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 19:19

And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean
The clean priest shall sprinkle upon the unclean man, as the Targum of Jonathan; that is, he shall sprinkle the water of purification upon him that is unclean in any of the above ways:

on the third day, and on the seventh day; (See Gill on Numbers 19:12),

and on the seventh day he shall purify himself;
either the unclean person, who shall perfect his purification, as Jarchi interprets it, that is, by doing what follows; or else the clean person, who becomes in some measure unclean, by sprinkling and touching the water of separation, as appears from ( Numbers 19:21 ) as the priest that sprinkled the blood of the heifer, and the man that burnt it and gathered its ashes, ( Numbers 19:7-9 )

and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at
even;
in like manner as the man that let go the goat into the wilderness, ( Leviticus 16:26 ) .

Numbers 19:19 In-Context

17 For this unclean person, take some ashes from the burned Absolution-Offering and add some fresh water to it in a bowl.
18 Find a ritually clean man to dip a sprig of hyssop into the water and sprinkle the tent and all its furnishings, the persons who were in the tent, the one who touched the bones of the person who was killed or died a natural death, and whoever may have touched a grave.
19 Then he is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days. On the seventh day he is considered cleansed. The cleansed person must then scrub his clothes and take a bath; by evening he is clean.
20 But if an unclean person does not go through these cleansing procedures, he must be excommunicated from the community; he has desecrated the Sanctuary of God. The Water-of-Cleansing has not been sprinkled on him and he is ritually unclean.
21 This is the standing rule for these cases. "The man who sprinkles the Water-of-Cleansing has to scrub his clothes; anyone else who touched the Water-of-Cleansing is also ritually unclean until evening.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.