Numbers 19:8-18

8 'The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening.

9 'Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside * the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as ¹water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin.

10 'The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ²shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the alien who sojourns among them.

11 '³The one who touches the corpse of any person * shall be unclean for seven days.

12 'That one shall ⁴purify himself from uncleanness with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.

13 '⁵Anyone who touches a corpse, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, ⁶defiles the tabernacle of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not ⁷sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

14 'This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days.

15 'Every open vessel, which has no covering tied down on it, shall be unclean.

16 '⁸Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.

17 'Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt ⁹purification from sin and flowing water shall be added to them in a vessel.

18 'A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave.

Numbers 19:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 19

This chapter contains a law for making a water for purification for sin, the ingredients of which are the ashes of a red heifer burnt, about which many things are observed, Nu 19:1-10; the use of the water made of them, to purify such as were unclean by the touch of a dead body, Nu 19:11-13; some rules are given, by which it might be known who were unclean on account of a dead body, Nu 19:14-16; the manner of purifying such persons, Nu 19:17-19; and the punishment of those that should neglect purification, Nu 19:20-22.

Cross References

• 1. Numbers 8:7; Numbers 31:23
• 2. Numbers 19:7
• 3. Leviticus 21:1, 11; Numbers 5:2; Numbers 6:6; Acts 21:26, 27
• 4. Numbers 19:19; Numbers 31:19
• 5. Leviticus 7:21; Leviticus 22:3-7
• 6. Leviticus 15:31; Leviticus 20:3; Numbers 19:20
• 7. Numbers 19:19
• 8. Numbers 31:19
• 9. Numbers 19:9

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "flesh"
• [b] Lit "it shall be to the congregation...Israel, for a guarding as water of impurity"
• [c] Or "a sin offering"
• [d] Lit "soul of man"
• [e] Lit "it"
• [f] Lit "soul"
• [g] Lit "dwelling place"
• [h] Or "thrown"
• [i] Lit "cord"
• [j] Lit "dust"
• [k] Lit "burning of the"
• [l] Or "sin offering"
• [m] Lit "living"
• [n] Lit "put"