Numbers 19:16

Numbers 19:16 in other versions

• King James Version (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.
• New International Version (NIV)“Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
• English Standard Version (ESV)Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
• New King James Version (NKJV)Whoever in the open field touches 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.

Context of Numbers 19:16

14This is the rule when a person dies in a tent. Any person who is in the tent will not be clean for seven days. 15Any pot in the tent that does not have a lid will not be clean. Also, a person might have killed someone with a sword out in the country. Or someone may have died because he was old or ill. Anyone who touches a dead body in the country will become unclean for seven days. Also if they touch a human bone, or a grave, that person will be unclean for seven days. 17Then for the person who is not clean, you must take some of the ashes of the young red cow. That is the cow to make people clean. You must put these ashes into a pot and you must mix them with water from a river. 18Then a person who is clean must take hyssop. He must put it into the water. Then he must use it to splash the water on the tent and on everything that is in it. He must also splash the water on all the people who have been there. And he must splash it on the person who touched the bone or the dead body or the grave.

Numbers 19:16 word by word

וְכֹ֨ל אֲשֶׁר־יִגַּ֜ע עַל־פְּנֵ֣י הַשָּׂדֶ֗ה בַּֽחֲלַל־חֶ֙רֶב֙ א֣וֹ בְמֵ֔ת אֽוֹ־בְעֶ֥צֶם אָדָ֖ם א֣וֹ בְקָ֑בֶר יִטְמָ֖א שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִֽים׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• And whosoever touchethנָגַעnâga‛ · to touchH5060
• one that is slainחָלָלchâlâl · slain: killedH2491
• with a swordחֶ֫רֶבchereb · swordH2719
• in the openפָּנֶהpânîym · face: surfaceH6440
• fieldsשָׂדֶהώâdeh ώâday · land: countryH7704
• or a dead bodyמוּתmûth · to dieH4191
• or a boneעֶ֫צֶם‛etsem · boneH6106
• of a manאָדָם'âdâm · manH120
• or a graveקֶ֫בֶרqeber qibrâh · graveH6913
• shall be uncleanטָמֵאţâmê' · to defileH2930
• sevenשֶׁ֫בַעsheba‛ shib‛âh · sevenH7651
• daysיוֹםyôm · dayH3117

Cross-references for Numbers 19:16

• Numbers 19:11Any person who touches a dead body will not be clean for seven days.
• Numbers 31:19Moses said, ‘Any soldier who has killed someone, or who has touched a dead body is unclean. He must stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and on the seventh day, you must wash yourselves to become clean. You must do the same thing to your Midianite prisoners.
• Ezekiel 39:11They will bury Gog in the valley east of the sea. They will bury Gog and all his armies there. So men will not be able to walk through this valley. They will call it the valley of Hamon Gog (Gog's army).
• Matthew 23:27It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You are like a grave that has nice white paint on the outside and it looks beautiful. But on the inside it is full of bones and disgusting things.
• Luke 11:44It will be very bad for you. You want to seem good to other people, but you are bad on the inside. You are like a grave that has nothing to show that it is there. People walk on that place because they do not know that there is a dead person there.’

Commentaries on Numbers 19:16

• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 11-22Verses 11-22 One practical effect of attaching defilement to a dead body, and to all that touched it, etc., would be to insure early burial, and to correct a practice not uncommon in the East, of leaving the deal to be devoured by the wild beasts.Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 11-22Verses 11-22 Why did the law make a corpse a defiling thing? Because death is the wages of sin, which entered into the world by it, and reigns by the power of it. The law could not conquer death, nor abolish it, as the gospel does, by bringing life and immortality to light, and so introducing a better hope. As the ashes of the heifer signified the merit of Christ, so the running water signified the power and grace of the blessed Spirit, who is compared to…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 14-16Death made a person ceremonially unclean, and this uncleanness could spread. It could pass to an object or to a place where someone had died (compare Leviticus 15:1–12). This means that anything connected to the dead body could also become unclean. People had to be careful so that impurity did not spread through the camp.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 11-2211-22. He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean--This law is noticed here to show the uses to which the water of separation [Nu 19:9] was applied. The case of a death is one; and as in every family which sustained a bereavement the members of the household became defiled, so in an immense population, where instances of mortality and other cases of uncleanness would be daily occurring, the water of separation must have been in constant…Read the comment

Topics related to Numbers 19:16

• Burial
• Defilement
• Mourning
• Sanitation
• Water

In the dictionaries

• Dead Body
• Carcase
• Clean
• Covering
• Defile
• Exodus
• Grave
• Unclean
• Water of separation
• Agrapha

Commentaries on Numbers 19

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings