Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 31:19
And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify [both] yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.
19. purify yourselves ] The same word as in Num 8:21, ‘ unsin yourselves.’ Purification after battle is a custom found among various primitive tribes. The Hebrews had not yet received the higher teaching that only ‘the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man’ (Mar 7:15).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
19 24. The purification necessary after contact with the dead. Moses bids all who are defiled to remain outside the camp for seven days and perform the requisite ritual of purification.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Seven days; according to the law, Lev 15:13; Num 19:11,12.
Purify with the water of sprinkling, Num 19:9.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19-24. abide without the camp sevendays: whosoever hath killed any person . . . purify both yourselvesand your captivesThough the Israelites had taken the field inobedience to the command of God, they had become defiled by contactwith the dead. A process of purification was to be undergone, as thelaw required (Lev 15:13; Num 19:9-12),and this purifying ceremony was extended to dress, houses, tents, toeverything on which a dead body had lain, which had been touched bythe blood-stained hands of the Israelitish warriors, or which hadbeen the property of idolaters. This became a standing ordinance inall time coming (Lev 6:28; Lev 11:33;Lev 15:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And do ye abide without the camp seven days….. Which was the time that anyone that touched a dead body remained unclean,
Nu 19:11,
whosoever hath killed any person; as most of them if not all must have done; all the males of Midian that fell into their hands being slain by them, that were men grown:
and whosoever hath touched any slain; as they must to strip them of their garments, and take their spoil from them:
purify both yourselves and your captives, on the third and on the seventh day; which were the days appointed for the purification of such that were polluted by touching dead bodies, Nu 19:11 and their captives, which were the female little ones; (for as for the women, and males among the little ones, they were ordered to be slain;) though they were Heathens, yet inasmuch as they were to be for the service of the Israelites, and to be brought up in their religion, they were to be purified also; to which purpose is the note of Jarchi;
“not that the Gentiles receive uncleanness and need sprinkling, but as ye are the children of the covenant, so your captives, when they come into the covenant, and are defiled, need sprinkling.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Purification of the Warriors, the Prisoners, and the Booty. – Moses commanded the men of war to remain for seven days outside the camp of the congregation, to carry out upon the third and seventh day the legal purification of such persons and things as had been rendered unclean through contact with dead bodies. Every one who had slain a soul (person), or touched one who had been slain, was to be purified, whether he were a warrior or a prisoner. And so also were all the clothes, articles of leather, materials of goats’ hair, and all wooden things.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
19. And do ye abide without the camp seven days. We have elsewhere seen, (209) that, if any one had touched a dead body, he was accounted unclean. Moses, by now extending the ceremony of expiation to lawful homicide, intimates how carefully we ought to abstain from shedding human blood. It was required of the Israelites that they should strenuously advance through the midst of carnage; but, inasmuch as it is in a manner contrary to the order of nature that men should be killed by men, as if they were raging against their own bowels, God would have some vestiges of humanity preserved even in just punishments, so as to put a restraint upon all cruelty in the abstract. Nor is it without cause that Scripture, even in commending heroic bravery, uses this form of expression, that “they have polluted their hands with blood,” who have slain any of their enemies, i.e., in order that we may abhor all acts of homicide, as being repugnant to the preservation of the human race. Although, therefore, the Israelites had slain the Midianites not only justly, but by God’s command, still, lest they should accustom themselves to the indiscriminate shedding of blood, they are commanded to purify themselves on the third and the seventh day, before they returned to the camp, so that their pollution should not infect the people. The reason for purifying the booty was different, viz., because the uncleanness of their vessels indicated how detestable was this people, whose very utensils, until they were purified either by fire or water, defiled every one by the mere touch. Lest, however, the soldiers should refuse to obey, or should comply unwillingly, Eleazar reminds them that nothing more was required of them than the observance of an old injunction. Nor is it to be doubted but that Moses designedly resigned the office of teaching to his nephew, because the interpretation of the law was hereafter to be sought from the mouth of the priest
(209) See ante, on Num 19:11, vol. 2, p. 42.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE SOLDIERS, PRISONERS, AND SPOILS CEREMONIALLY CLEANSED, Num 31:19-24.
19. Without the camp seven days The duration of pollution by the dead. Num 19:11, note.
Any person Hebrew, soul. Num 5:2, note.
Purify With the water of separation. Captives were not rendered unclean by contact with the dead until they were incorporated into Israel as lawful possessions. Then they must be purified on the third and on the seventh day. Num 19:12, note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Purification of the Army
v. 19. And do ye abide without the camp seven days, v. 20. And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, v. 21. And Eleazar, the priest, said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord commanded Moses, v. 22. only the gold and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, v. 23. everything that may abide the fire, v. 24. And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Num 31:19. And do ye abide without the camp seven days The whole army were to stay without the camp seven days; and such of them as had stained their hands in blood, or touched a dead body, were to purify themselves by the water of separation, ch. Num 19:9. For, though it was lawful to kill men in a just war; yet, because of the common affinity which subsists between all mankind, and to preserve sentiments of humanity, it was thought fit and decent to oblige all who had shed blood, as well as those who had touched the slain, to undergo a purification, before they were admitted to free conversation and public worship. It appears to have been a very ancient custom among most nations, to appoint certain purifications in all such cases; in order, no doubt, to inspire an uncommon dread and horror of bloodshed. On these occasions, it was usual, particularly, to wash their hands in water, for the purification of the defilement. Thus Homer makes Hector declare himself unfit for performing any offices of divine worship before he was purified:
Ill fits it me, with human gore distain’d, To the pure skies these horrid hands to raise, Or offer heav’n’s great Sire polluted praise. POPE, Iliad. 6:
And Virgil makes AEneas say the same thing:
These hands, yet horrid with the stains of war, Refrain their touch unhallow’d, till the day When the pure stream shall wash their guilt away. PITT, AEn. 2:
It was upon this account that the man-slayer, who had involuntarily shed blood, was forced to fly his country, and repair to one of the cities of refuge, ch. 35: For the same reason David was not allowed to build the temple of God, because he had been a man of war, and had shed much blood, 1Ch 28:3. See Philo, de vita Mosis; and Grotius de Jure B. & P. lib. 2: cap. 24.
It is demonstrable, says Mr. Saurin, that if Moses did not here prescribe particular rules to those who returned from any military expedition, he had already given general ones, of which he now makes the application. See Lev 21:1. Num 19:4. Lev 6:28; Lev 15:12.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The law respecting uncleanness had so much in it of allusion to the gospel, that it is not to be wondered at we meet with it upon every occasion. But Reader! how delightful is it to see our privileges in JESUS. Let us go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Heb 13:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Num 31:19 And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify [both] yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.
Ver. 19. Whosoever hath killed any person. ] War, though never so just, is the slaughter house of mankind, and the hell of this world. Homer brings in Mars, the god of battle, as most hated of Jupiter. Bellum per antlphrasin, quia minime bellum. “For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood.” Isa 9:5 What a strange man then was Pyrrhus, King of the Epirotes, of whom Justin reports, that he took more pleasure in fighting than in reigning! And what a hard heart had Hannibal, who, when he saw a pit full of man’s blood which he had spilt, cried out, O formosum spectaculum! O brave sight! So, O rem regiam, said Valesus, i.e., O kingly act! when he had slain three hundred persons. And what a strange hell-hag was that queen, who, when she saw some of her Protestant subjects lying dead and stripped upon the earth, cried out, The goodliest tapestry that ever she beheld! God, that he might teach his people not to have “feet swift to shed blood,” tells them here of a ceremonial uncleanness, contracted by killing, though an enemy, devoted by him to destruction.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
person = soul. Hebrew. nephesh (App-13).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
abide: Though the Israelites had acted by the commission of God, yet they had contracted pollution by touching the dead; and the spoil having been used by idolaters, must also be purified in the prescribed manner. Num 5:2, Num 19:11-22, 1Ch 22:8
Reciprocal: Gen 22:4 – third Num 19:12 – third day Num 19:16 – toucheth Num 19:19 – on the seventh day he Jos 6:23 – left them
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 31:19-20. Abide without the camp seven days According to the law, Lev 15:13. Purify yourselves With the water of sprinkling, Num 19:9. Your raiment Namely, your spoil and prey. All work All which had contracted some ceremonial uncleanness, either from the dead bodies which wore them, or the tents or houses where they were, in which such dead bodies lay, or from the touch of the Israelitish soldiers, who were legally defiled by the slaughters they made.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 31:19-24. The Purification of the Israelite Army after the Slaughter.The purification of warriors after a battle, practised in antiquity as by savage peoples to-day, was due, not to any desire for physical cleanliness, but to the dread of the mystery involved in spilt blood and in dead bodies: those who had been in contact with such were sources of danger to the community until ritually purified. The rules observed are those prescribed in Num 19:11 f.; but in addition it is here enjoined that everything that can stand fire shall be purified by fire and by the water of separation (Num 19:9), whereas for everything likely to suffer from fire ordinary washing shall suffice.