Naravist

The Torah · Old Testament

Numbers 19

Purification after contact with death

General context

A red heifer without blemish and never yoked is brought outside the camp and killed before Eleazar. Its burning includes cedar, hyssop and scarlet, and its ashes are stored for water used in purification. Contact with a human corpse, bone or grave brings seven days of uncleanness; a death in a tent also affects those entering it and its uncovered vessels. The procedure requires sprinkling on the third and seventh days, followed by washing and bathing. Failure to undergo purification is treated as defiling the sanctuary and carries exclusion from the congregation.

Cited passages: Numbers 19:1, Numbers 19:2, Numbers 19:3, Numbers 19:4, Numbers 19:5, Numbers 19:6, Numbers 19:7, Numbers 19:8, Numbers 19:9, Numbers 19:10, Numbers 19:11, Numbers 19:12, Numbers 19:13, Numbers 19:14, Numbers 19:15, Numbers 19:16, Numbers 19:17, Numbers 19:18, Numbers 19:19, Numbers 19:20

Numbers 19 (KJV)

1And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

2This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:

3And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:

4And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times:

5And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:

6And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

7Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even.

8And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.

9And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.

10And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.

11He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

12He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

13Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.

14This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.

15And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean.

16And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

17And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel:

18And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave:

19And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.

20But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord: the water of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean.

21And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even.

22And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

The ashes are kept outside the camp in a clean place, then mixed with running water in a vessel. A clean person uses hyssop to sprinkle the affected people and objects. The priest, the person burning the heifer and the collector of ashes also undergo washing and temporary uncleanness. These are the chapter's ritual classifications; it does not diagnose an illness in everyone who has touched the dead. The ordinance includes resident foreigners as well as Israelites.

Cited passages: Numbers 19:3, Numbers 19:4, Numbers 19:5, Numbers 19:6, Numbers 19:7, Numbers 19:8, Numbers 19:9, Numbers 19:10, Numbers 19:11, Numbers 19:12, Numbers 19:13, Numbers 19:14, Numbers 19:15, Numbers 19:16, Numbers 19:17, Numbers 19:18, Numbers 19:19, Numbers 19:21, Numbers 19:22

Literary context

The instructions first prepare a means of purification and then describe the situations in which it is needed. They move between persons, tents, vessels and the sanctuary, showing how contact extends beyond one individual. A striking feature is that work preparing the purification material itself brings temporary uncleanness to its handlers. The repeated third-day, seventh-day and evening markers give the process an ordered sequence.

Cited passages: Numbers 19:7, Numbers 19:8, Numbers 19:9, Numbers 19:10, Numbers 19:11, Numbers 19:12, Numbers 19:13, Numbers 19:14, Numbers 19:15, Numbers 19:16, Numbers 19:17, Numbers 19:18, Numbers 19:19, Numbers 19:20, Numbers 19:21, Numbers 19:22

Key moments

  1. The heifer outside the camp (Numbers 19:3). Eleazar receives the heifer for the prescribed procedure outside the camp.
  2. Ashes kept for purification (Numbers 19:9). A clean person gathers and stores the ashes for the congregation's use.
  3. Third and seventh days (Numbers 19:19). Sprinkling, washing and bathing mark the prescribed return to cleanness.

For reflection

What does the attention to shared spaces and the people doing the cleansing work invite you to notice about responsibilities that extend beyond one person?

People in this chapter