Bible Compass
Log inGet started
Back to the chapter

Numbers 19:16

14 This is the law when a person dies in a tent: Everyone who enters the tent and everyone already in the tent will be unclean for seven days,

15 and any open container without a lid fastened on it is unclean.

Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

17 For the purification of the unclean person, take some of the ashes of the burnt sin offering, put them in a jar, and pour fresh water over them.

18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent, all the furnishings, and the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle the one who touched a bone, a grave, or a person who has died or been slain.

Read the whole chapter

This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB
Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
KJV
And 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.
WEB
“Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
ASV
And whosoever in the open field toucheth one that is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
DARBY
And every one that toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead person, or the bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
BLB
And whoever touches in the open field one who is slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
ÅB
Og hver den som ute på marken rører ved en som er drept med sverd, eller ved et annet lik eller ved menneskeben eller ved en grav, skal være uren i syv dager.
OTB
Enhver på åpen mark som rører ved noen som er drept med sverd eller som har dødd naturlig, eller rører ved et menneskebein eller en grav, vil være uren i syv dager.
B1930
Og hver den som ute på marken rører ved en som er drept med sverd, eller ved et annet lik eller ved menneskeben eller ved en grav, skal være uren i syv dager.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

  • Numbers 19:11

    Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days.

    Read in context

  • Numbers 31:19

    All of you who have killed a person or touched the dead are to remain outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and the seventh day you are to purify both yourselves and your captives.

    Read in context

  • Matthew 23:27

    Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.

    Read in context

  • Luke 11:44

    Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without even noticing.”

    Read in context

  • Ezekiel 39:11–16

    And on that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the Sea. It will block those who travel through, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.

    Read in context