Numbers 31:23

23 and all thing that may pass by (the) flame, shall be purged by fire; soothly whatever thing may not suffer fire, shall be hallowed with the water of cleansing. (and all the things that can pass through the flame, shall be purified by fire; but whatever thing cannot survive the flame, shall be made clean with the water of cleansing, or of purification.)

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, spake thus to the men of the host that fought, This is the commandment of the law, which the Lord commanded to Moses,
22 The gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and tin, and lead,
23 and all thing that may pass by (the) flame, shall be purged by fire; soothly whatever thing may not suffer fire, shall be hallowed with the water of cleansing. (and all the things that can pass through the flame, shall be purified by fire; but whatever thing cannot survive the flame, shall be made clean with the water of cleansing, or of purification.)
24 And ye shall wash your clothes in the seventh day, and ye shall be cleansed; and afterward ye shall enter into the tents. (And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and then ye shall be clean; and afterward ye can return to the tents.)
25 And the Lord said to Moses,
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.