Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 19:11
He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.] How low does this lay man! He who touched a dead beast was only unclean for one day, Le 11:24; Le 11:27; Le 11:39; but he who touches a dead man is unclean for seven days. This was certainly designed to mark the peculiar impurity of man, and to show his sinfulness – seven times worse than the vilest animal! O thou son of the morning, how art thou fallen!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Whereas the touch of a dead beast made a man unclean only till even, Lev 11:24.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11-22. He that toucheth the deadbody of any man shall be uncleanThis law is noticed here toshow the uses to which the water of separation [Nu19:9] was applied. The case of a death is one; and as in everyfamily which sustained a bereavement the members of the householdbecame defiled, so in an immense population, where instances ofmortality and other cases of uncleanness would be daily occurring,the water of separation must have been in constant requisition. Toafford the necessary supply of the cleansing mixture, the Jewishwriters say that a red heifer was sacrificed every year, and that theashes, mingled with the sprinkling ingredients, were distributedthrough all the cities and towns of Israel.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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, Le 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11 He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. 12 He 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. 13 Whosoever 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. 14 This 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. 15 And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean. 16 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. 17 And 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: 18 And 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: 19 And 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. 20 But 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. 21 And 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. 22 And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.
Directions are here given concerning the use and application of the ashes which were prepared for purification. they were laid up to be laid out; and therefore, though now one place would serve to keep them in, while all Israel lay so closely encamped, yet it is probable that afterwards, when they came to Canaan, some of these ashes were kept in every town, for there would be daily use for them. Observe,
I. In what cases there needed a purification with these ashes. No other is mentioned here than the ceremonial uncleanness that was contracted by the touch of a dead body, or of the bone or grave of a dead man, or being in the tent or house where a dead body lay, Num 19:11; Num 19:14-16. This I look upon to have been one of the greatest burdens of the ceremonial law, and one of the most unaccountable. He that touched the carcase of an unclean beast, or any living man under the greatest ceremonial uncleanness, was made unclean by it only till the evening, and needed only common water to purify himself with; but he that came near the dead body of man, woman, or child, much bear the reproach of his uncleanness seven days, must twice be purified with the water of separation, which he could not obtain without trouble and charge, and till he was purified must not come near the sanctuary upon pain of death.
1. This was strange, considering, (1.) that whenever any died (and we are in deaths oft) several persons must unavoidable contract this pollution, the body must be stripped, washed, wound up, carried out, and buried, and this could not be done without many hands, and yet all defiled, which signifies that in our corrupt and fallen state there is none that lives and sins not; we cannot avoid being polluted by the defiling world we pass through, and we offend daily, yet the impossibility of our being sinless does not make sin the less polluting. (2.) that taking care of the dead, to see them decently buried, is not only necessary, but a very good office, and an act of kindness, both to the honour of the dead and the comfort of the living, and yet uncleanness was contracted by it, which intimates that the pollutions of sin mix with and cleave to our best services. There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not; we are apt some way or other to do amiss even in our doing good. (3.) That this pollution was contracted by what was done privately in their own houses, which intimates (as bishop Patrick observes) that God sees what is done in secret, and nothing can be concealed from the divine Majesty. (4.) This pollution might be contracted, and yet a man might never know it, as by the touch of a grave which appeared not, of which our Saviour says, Those that walk over it are not aware of it (Luke xi. 44), which intimates the defilement of the conscience by sins of ignorance, and the cause we have to cry out, “Who can understand his errors?” and to pray, “Cleanse us from secret faults, faults which we ourselves do not see ourselves guilty of.”
2. But why did the law make a dead corpse such a defiling thing? (1.) Because death is the wages of sin, entered into the world by it, and reigns by the power of it. Death to mankind is another thing from what it is to other creatures: it is a curse, it is the execution of the law, and therefore the defilement of death signifies the defilement of sin. (2.) Because the law could not conquer death, nor abolish it and alter the property of it, as the gospel does by bringing life and immortality to light, and so introducing a better hope. Since our Redeemer was dead and buried, death is no more destroying to the Israel of God, and therefore dead bodies are no more defiling; but while the church was under the law, to show that it made not the comers thereunto perfect, the pollution contracted by dead bodies could not but form in their minds melancholy and uncomfortable notions concerning death, while believers now through Christ can triumph over it. O grave! where is thy victory? Where is thy pollution?
II. How the ashes were to be used and applied in these cases. 1. A small quantity of the ashes must be put into a cup of spring water, and mixed with the water, which thereby was made, as it is here called, a water of separation, because it was to be sprinkled on those who were separated or removed from the sanctuary by their uncleanness. 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 rivers of living water; and it is by his operation that the righteousness of Christ is applied to us for our cleansing. Hence we are said to be washed, that is, sanctified and justified, not only in the name of the Lord Jesus, but by the Spirit of our God,1Co 6:11; 1Pe 1:2. Those that promise themselves benefit by the righteousness of Christ, while they submit not to the grace and influence of the Spirit, do but deceive themselves, for we cannot put asunder what God has joined, nor be purified by the ashes otherwise than in the running water. 2. This water must be applied by a bunch of hyssop dipped in it, with which the person or thing to be cleansed must be sprinkled (v. 18), in allusion to which David prays, Purge me with hyssop. Faith is the bunch of hyssop wherewith the conscience is sprinkled and the heart purified. Many might be sprinkled at once, and the water with which the ashes were mingled might serve for many sprinklings, till it was all spent; and a very little lighting upon a man served to purify him, if done with that intention. In allusion to this application of the water of separation by sprinkling, the blood of Christ is said to be the blood of sprinkling (Heb. xii. 24), and with it were are said to be sprinkled from an evil conscience (Heb. x. 22), that is, we are freed from the uneasiness that arises from a sense of our guilt. And it is foretold that Christ, by his baptism, shall sprinkle many nations, Isa. lii. 15. 3. The unclean person must be sprinkled with this water on the third day after his pollution, and on the seventh day, v. 12-19. The days were reckoned (we may suppose) from the last time of his touching or coming near the dead body; for he would not begin the days of his cleansing while he was still under a necessity of repeating the pollution; but when the dead body was buried, so that there was no further occasion of meddling with it, then he began to reckon his days. Then, and then only, we may with comfort apply Christ’s merit to our souls, when we have forsaken sin, and cease all fellowship with the unfruitful works of death and darkness. The repetition of the sprinkling teaches us often to renew the actings of repentance and faith, wash as Naaman, seven times; we need to do that often which is so necessary to be well done. 4. Though the pollution contracted was only ceremonial, yet the neglect of the purification prescribed would turn into moral guilt: He that shall be unclean and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off, v. 20. Note, It is a dangerous thing to contemn divine institutions, though they may seem minute. A slight wound, if neglected, may prove fatal; a sin we call little, if not repented of, will be our ruin, when great sinners that repent shall find mercy. Our uncleanness separates us from God, but it is our being unclean and not purifying ourselves that will separate us for ever from him: it is not the wound that is fatal, so much as the contempt of the remedy. 5. Even he that sprinkled the water of separation, or touched it, or touched the unclean person, must be unclean till the evening, that is, must not come near the sanctuary on that day, Num 19:21; Num 19:22. Thus God would show them the imperfection of those services, and their insufficiency to purify the conscience, that they might look for the Messiah, who in the fulness of time should by the eternal Spirit offer himself without spot unto God, and so purge our consciences from dead works (that is, from sin, which defiles like a dead body, and is therefore called a body of death), that we may have liberty of access to the sanctuary, to serve the living God with living sacrifices.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 11-16:
Instruction was given prior to this time, regarding defilement by contact with the dead, Le 21:1; Nu 5:2; 6:6; 9:6, 7. The present text provides additional details regarding the time involved, and the consequences of this uncleanness.
“It” (verse 12) refers to the water of separation (verse 9).
One who became defiled by contact with a corpse must follow the purification ritual precisely. The period of separation was to last for seven days. But he must purify himself with the “water of separation” on the “third day” after he began the rite, or he would not become clean the seventh day.
On the defilement of the Tabernacle, see Le 15:31.
A tent housing a corpse was considered unclean for seven days. Any open or uncovered vessel in this tent was also unclean.
Any contact with a corpse, or even with a bone or a grave, rendered one unclean.
Health and sanitation may be one reason for the importance placed upon contact with a dead body, or anything touched by death. Disease germs could have been spread by this contact, bringing a deadly plague among the people. A strict quarantine must be enforced.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11. He that toucheth the dead body. He now recites certain forms of pollution in which the washing was necessary; all of them, however, come to the point, that men are defiled by the touch of a corpse or, bones, or a grave. Nor is there here any distinction between the body of a person who is slain, or of one who has died in bed; whence it follows that death is here set forth as a mirror of God’s curse: And assuredly, if we consider its origin and cause, the corruption of nature, whereby the image of God is defaced, presents itself in every, dead man; for, unless we were altogether corrupt, we should not be born to perish But God also taught His people by another mode of signifying it, that uncleanness is contracted by our communication with the unfruitful works of darkness. For the Apostle (Heb 6:1) calls them “dead works,” either from their consequences, or because, as faith is the life of the soul, so unbelief keeps it in death. Since, then, the corpse the bones, the grave, designate whatever we bring from the womb, because, until we are born again, and God quickens us by His Spirit and faith, we are dead while we live; there is no question but that the children of Israel were reminded, that in order to keep themselves pure before God, they must abstain from all corruption; inasmuch as, if they were rendered unclean by their contact with a dead man, they must immediately have recourse to ablution. In fine, the ceremony had no other object than that they should serve God in pureness from the sins of the flesh; and exercise themselves in constant thoughts of repentance, whilst, if they fell from their purity, they should labor to obtain reconciliation with God, by means of sacrifice and ablution.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) He that toucheth the dead body . . . The defilement caused by touching the dead body of a beast lasted only until the evening (Lev. 11:24). The death of man was the wages of sin; and hence contact with the dead body of a man was attended by ceremonial defilement of longer duration.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE USE OF THE PURIFYING WATER, Num 19:11-22.
The water of separation is chiefly used to remove the uncleanness arising from the dead. From remote antiquity many nations have shared in the notion that death and its attendant putrefaction, as the embodiment of sin in consequence of the fall, defiled and excluded from fellowship with the holy God. This notion is presupposed by the laws given on Sinai, and confirmed by the prohibition of the priests to attend the funerals of any except their nearest blood relations, (Lev 21:1-6; Lev 21:10-12, notes,) and by the order to remove from the camp every corpse-defiled person.
Num 5:2-4, note. The Egyptian priests were required to shun graves, funerals, and funeral feasts; the Persian Zenda-vesta, the ancient and modern religions of India, as well as the old Grecian and Roman rituals, were remarkably emphatic in this injunction. In New Zealand the man who has handled the dead is deemed so impure that he may not put forth his hands to his own food. In all these nations the rites of purification have points of resemblance to the Mosaic.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
11. The dead body of any man Literally, He who toucheth the dead with regard to every soul of man; any human corpse. Contact with a dead beast defiled for only one day, (Lev 11:24; Lev 11:27; Lev 11:39, notes,) but by reason of the peculiar sinfulness of man and the infectiousness and hatefulness of sin, his dead body was regarded as polluting seven times more than that of the vilest animal.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Use of the Water
v. 11. He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. v. 12. He shall purify himself with it, v. 13. Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, v. 14. This 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.
v. 15. And every open vessel which hath no covering bound upon it, v. 16. And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, v. 17. And for an unclean person, v. 18. and a clean person shall take hyssop, v. 19. and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he, v. 20. And the man that shall be unclean and shall not purify himself, v. 21. And 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, v. 22. And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Num 19:11. He that toucheth the dead body of any man He that touched a dead beast was unclean only one day, Lev 11:24; Lev 11:47. He that touched the dead body of a man was unclean seven days; so that this was among the greater legal-pollutions; to teach, says Ainsworth, that sin has made mankind the vilest of creatures. The notion of this pollution, which seems to have been almost universal, might probably arise from the natural offensiveness of the object, both to sight and to smell, in hot countries, where dead bodies sooner corrupt. Le Clerc thinks, that the political reason of this law might be, to hinder people from being hardened into cruelty or insensibility, by frequently viewing or touching dead bodies; as also to oblige them to bury their dead as soon as possible, to prevent the inconveniences which might arise from their being unburied in those warm regions; for we may collect from Num 19:15 that they conceive some foul and noxious effluvia to arise from a dead body. Some, however, have conjectured, and with great probability, that the Lord, by Moses, had a higher view in enacting this law; namely, to prevent the Israelites from degenerating into the Egyptian idolatry of worshipping the dead, by preserving their bodies or relics with a superstitious veneration, or performing religious honours at their graves or sepulchral monuments; in opposition to which, Moses ordains, that all persons who did but touch a dead body, or, even the bone of a man, or a grave, Num 19:16 should be unclean seven days.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
We here behold in striking characters the awful effects sin hath wrought in our nature: the wages of sin is, and must be, death. And when at any time in our friends, and in our houses, that sentence is executed, uncleanness is attached to all. And this must have continued forever, had not JESUS interposed and abolished death by his glorious undertaking, and brought life and immortality to light by his gospel. See, Reader! in this ceremonial uncleanness made by death, to what a miserable state out of CHRIST, our nature is universally reduced!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Num 19:11 He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
Ver. 11. He that toucheth. ] To teach them to observe God’s curse in death, and to avoid the society of sinful men.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
body = soul. Hebrew. nephesh. Literally “the dead nephesh of”. App-13.
man = Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
toucheth the dead: He who touched a dead beast was only unclean for one day – Lev 11:12, Lev 11:27, Lev 11:39, but he who touches a dead man is unclean for seven days. This was certainly designed to show the peculiar impurity and sinfulness of man, and the hatefulness of sin, seven times worse than the vilest animal! Num 19:16, Num 5:2, Num 9:6, Num 9:10, Num 31:19, Lev 11:31, Lev 21:1, Lev 21:11, Lam 4:14, Hag 2:13, Rom 5:12, 2Co 6:17, Eph 2:1, Heb 9:14
man: Heb. soul of man
Reciprocal: Gen 50:10 – seven days Lev 5:2 – touch Lev 5:3 – the uncleanness Lev 7:19 – General Lev 7:21 – the uncleanness Lev 15:13 – seven days Lev 22:4 – unclean Num 6:6 – he shall come Num 31:13 – without the camp 2Ch 35:6 – sanctify Isa 65:4 – remain Eze 39:14 – they shall Eze 44:26 – General Hos 9:4 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 19:11-13 explain the general rules for the use of this water. Num 19:14-22 give a more specific description of the application of the general rules. Num 19:17-19 record the ceremony of purification.
"Animals are clean and unclean, not because they necessarily will or will not make a person sick if they are used as food; they are clean and unclean primarily because God desired his people to live in a world of discrimination (see esp. Lev 11:44-47). We may look back from a twentieth-century understanding of infection and disease and remark, ’How kind it was of God that some of the animals he declared to be unclean to Israel are foods that might be conveyers of disease.’ But the principal issue is distinction, discrimination, the marking out of that which is different from something else." [Note: Allen, pp. 861-62.]
Nonetheless we should not discount God’s care for His people’s physical welfare even though that may have been His secondary reason for legislating as He did.
"God recognized that the incubation period for most bacteria is within seven days. This means that after exposure to a disease, a person will know within seven days whether the disease is contracted. . . .
". . . the ’unclean’ provision of seven days was practical for most acute, bacterial diseases fatal in that day.
"Hand washing and clothes washing with proper drying were prescribed in Num 19:19 . . . Num 19:21 notes that ’anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening.’ These provisions recognize that not only is washing important in mechanically cleansing one from microbes, but drying (’until evening’) is also essential. Pathogenic microbes can live in moisture that remains on skin, dying when the skin is eventually dried. Furthermore Num 19:13; Num 19:18-21 refers to the provision of ’sprinkling’ the water, which indicates the need for running water, not stagnant water. Again this is a more effective means of cleansing, though more cumbersome.
"Did the average Israelite understand the significance of this preventive medical standard God imposed? No doubt he did not. However, God knew and in His wisdom cared for His people." [Note: Jay D. Fawver and R. Larry Overstreet, "Moses and Preventive Medicine," Bibliotheca Sacra 147:587 (July-September 1990):280-81.]
This sacrifice, then, was a kind of instant sin offering and provided for the cleansing of those who had become ceremonially unclean through contact with a corpse. The unclean person who refused to purify himself would suffer death (Num 19:13; Num 19:20). To refuse cleansing was to repudiate the divine revelation concerning the relationship of sin and death. This sacrifice kept the Israelites free from the defilement that would hinder their fellowship with God (cf. 1Jn 1:7-9; Heb 9:13-14). Jacob Milgrom believed this offering was thought to exorcize a demon that came with corpse contamination. [Note: Jacob Milgrom, "The Paradox of the Red Cow (Num. xix)," Vetus Testamentum 31:1 (1981):62-72.]
"This chapter provides an alternative remedy which marked the seriousness of the pollution caused by death, yet dealt with it without the cost and inconvenience of sacrifice. Instead, those who have come in contact with the dead can be treated with a concoction of water that contains all the ingredients of a sin offering." [Note: G. Wenham, Numbers, p. 146.]
"The writer’s concern for the ritual of the red heifer at this point in the narrative . . . finds its roots in the earliest narratives of Genesis where death itself is viewed as the ultimate defilement of God’s good creation. As such his point appears to be to show that just as in the beginning, so now among God’s covenant people, death is the arch enemy." [Note: Sailhamer, p. 395.]
This sacrifice is similar to the sacrifice of Christ that cleanses the Christian from the defilement that we contract as we live in the world (1Jn 1:9).