“Encamp outside of the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives. You shall purify every garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made of wood.”
Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who went to the battle, “This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded Moses: however the gold, and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that may withstand the fire, you shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water for impurity. All that doesn’t withstand the fire you shall make to go through the water. You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean. Afterward you shall come into the camp.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv21, 23 Or, contained in the law.
Or, contained in the law.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv19, 23 Num 31:19 And do ye abide without the camp…
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.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv19–20 Seven days; according to the law, Lev 15:13; Num…
Seven days; according to the law, Lev 15:13; Num 19:11,12.
Purify with the water of sprinkling, Num 19:9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv19–24 And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of…
And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war, which went to the battle,.... To all the soldiers, officers, and common men:
this is the ordinance of the law, which the Lord commanded Moses; concerning the purification of unclean persons and things, hereby confirming what Moses had said.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v20 Your raiment - Namely, your spoil and prey. All…
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.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v23 Verse 23. The water of separation] The water in…
Verse 23. The water of separation] The water in which the ashes of the red heifer were mingled; See Clarke on Nu 8:7; "Nu 19:2", &c. Garments, whether of cloth or skins, were to be washed. Gold, silver, brass, iron, tin, and lead, to pass through the fire, probably to be melted down.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v19 Num 31:19-20. Abide without the camp seven days —…
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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v22 Brass - Render copper. See Gen 4:22 note. The…
Brass - Render copper. See Gen 4:22 note. The verse is curious as illustrating the variety of metals in use at this early date for domestic purposes. All these metals were common in Egypt centuries before the date of the Exodus.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv19, 23 Shall be. Hebrew, "purify yourselves and your captives on…
Shall be. Hebrew, "purify yourselves and your captives on the," &c. The girls, and all the booty, might probably be rendered unclean by the presence of a corpse, &c., chap xix. 14.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v19 abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed…
abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person . . . purify both yourselves and your captives--Though the Israelites had taken the field in obedience to the command of God, they had become defiled by contact with the dead. A process of purification was to be undergone, as the law required (Lev 15:13; Num 19:9-12), and this purifying ceremony was extended to dress, houses, tents, to everything on which a dead body had lain, which had been touched by the blood-stained hands of the Israelitish warriors, or which had been the property of idolaters. This became a standing ordinance in all time coming (Lev 6:28; Lev 11:33; Lev 15:12).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 24 THE SOLDIERS, PRISONERS, AND SPOILS CEREMONIALLY CLEANSED, Num_31:19-24.
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.
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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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 23 19. purify yourselves] The same word as in Num_8:21,…
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).
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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv19–23 Do ye abide without the comp. In this case…
Do ye abide without the comp. In this case at any rate the law of lmArsmli 19:11 sq. was to be strictly enforced. And your captives, i.e., the women and children who were spared. No peculiar rites are here prescribed for the reception of these children of idolaters into the holy nation with which they were to be incorporated beyond the usual lustration with the water of separation. In after times they would have been baptized.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v19 The Purification of the Army
The Purification of the Army
v. 19. And do ye abide without the camp seven days, because they had touched the bodies of slain people and must be purified, Num 19:11; 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, Num 19:9.
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v. 20. And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, the vessels and the coverings made of skins, and all work of goats’ hair, garments woven out of this hair, and all things made of wood. Cf Numbers 19.
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, a further extension and application of the precepts of purification of Chapter 19;
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, all metals that could withstand the power of the fire as they were placed in it for purposes of purification, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation, in addition to the outward cleansing by fire, for the Levitical cleansing was an essential part of the ceremony; and all that abided not the fire, such as wood, cloth, and skins, ye shall make go through the water.
v. 24. And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, as was usually done in the ceremony of purification, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp. To this day God can bear no uncleanness, no sinfulness, and He is very earnestly concerned lest the believers become contaminated by contact with the world.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v21 General Information:
General Information:
Eleazar teaches the soldiers the customs of becoming ceremonially clean before Yahweh after going to war.
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gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead
metals that were used during that time period
that resists fire
"that will not burn"
put it through the fire
"put it into the fire"
water of cleansing
This refers to water that someone has mixed with ashes from a sin offering. See: Numbers 19:17-19.
then you will become clean
These are the customs of becoming ceremonially clean before Yahweh.
translationWords
Eleazar
decree
law, laws
Moses
gold
silver
bronze
clean
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v19 31:19-24 Israelite warriors who had contact with corpses subjected…
31:19-24 Israelite warriors who had contact with corpses subjected themselves and their equipment to routine, but important, purification rituals (see 5:1-4; 19:1-22).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.