He that toucheth the dead body of any man
A man and not a beast, as Aben Ezra observes; for he that touched the dead body of a beast was unclean only until evening, ( Leviticus 11:24 ) ; any man, Jew or Gentile, as the same writer notes: this is instanced in, as being the principal pollution, though not the only one, yet so some think, for which the water of purification made of the ashes of the burnt heifer was appointed:
shall be unclean seven days;
the reason of which is, because death is the fruit of sin, which is of a defiling nature, and to show that all that are dead in sins are defiled and defiling, and are not to be touched, or to have communion and fellowship held with them but to be abstained from.