Numbers 19:11

THE MESSAGE

"Anyone who touches a dead body is ritually unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the Water-of-Cleansing on the third day; on the seventh day he will be clean. But if he doesn't follow the procedures for the third and seventh days, he won't be clean. Anyone who touches the dead body of anyone and doesn't get cleansed desecrates God 's Dwelling and is to be excommunicated. For as long as the Water-of-Cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he remains ritually unclean.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days:

King James Version
He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

Lexham English Bible
"‘The one who touches a corpse of any person will be unclean for seven days.

English Standard Version
"Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days.

New Century Version
"Those who touch a dead person's body will be unclean for seven days.

New English Translation
"‘Whoever touches the corpse of any person will be ceremonially unclean seven days.

Amplified Bible
'The one who touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean for seven days.

New American Standard Bible
'The one who touches the dead body of any person will also be unclean for seven days.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Hee that toucheth the dead body of any man, shalbe vncleane euen seuen dayes.

Legacy Standard Bible
‘The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days.

Contemporary English Version
The Lord said: If you touch a dead body, you will be unclean for seven days.

Complete Jewish Bible
"Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose dead body it is, will be unclean for seven days.

Darby Translation
He that toucheth a dead person, any dead body of a man, shall be unclean seven days.

Easy-to-Read Version
Those who touch a dead body will be unclean for seven days.

George Lamsa Translation
He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

Good News Translation
Those who touch a corpse are ritually unclean for seven days.

Christian Standard Bible®
“The person who touches any human corpse will be unclean for seven days.

Literal Translation
He that touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Who so now toucheth a deed ma, shal be vncleane seuen dayes:

American Standard Version
He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days:

Bible in Basic English
Anyone touching a dead body will be unclean for seven days:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
He that toucheth the dead body of any man, shalbe vncleane seuen dayes.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
He that toucheth the dead, even any man's dead body, shall be unclean seven days;

King James Version (1611)
He that toucheth the dead body of any man, shall bee vncleane seuen dayes.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
He that touches the dead body of any man, shall be unclean seven days.

English Revised Version
He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days:

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

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
He that touchith a deed bodi of man, and is vncleene for this bi seuene daies,

Young's Literal Translation
`He who is coming against the dead body of any man -- is unclean seven days;

Update Bible Version
He that touches any dead body of man shall be unclean seven days:

Webster's Bible Translation
He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

World English Bible
He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days:

New King James Version
"He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days.

New Living Translation
"All those who touch a dead human body will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.

New Life Bible
"The one who touches the dead body of any person will be unclean for seven days.

New Revised Standard
Those who touch the dead body of any human being shall be unclean seven days.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
He that toucheth the dead, even any human person, shall be unclean seven days.

Douay-Rheims Bible
He that toucheth the corpse of a man, and is therefore unclean seven days,

Revised Standard Version
"He who touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days;

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days.

Contextual Overview

¹¹"Anyone who touches a dead body is ritually unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the Water-of-Cleansing on the third day; on the seventh day he will be clean. But if he doesn't follow the procedures for the third and seventh days, he won't be clean. Anyone who touches the dead body of anyone and doesn't get cleansed desecrates God 's Dwelling and is to be excommunicated. For as long as the Water-of-Cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he remains ritually unclean. ¹⁴"This is the rule for someone who dies in his tent: Anyone who enters the tent or is already in the tent is ritually unclean for seven days, and every open container without a lid is unclean. ¹⁶"Anyone out in the open field who touches a corpse, whether dead from violent or natural causes, or a human bone or a grave is unclean for seven days. For this unclean person, take some ashes from the burned Absolution-Offering and add some fresh water to it in a bowl. Find a ritually clean man to dip a sprig of hyssop into the water and sprinkle the tent and all its furnishings, the persons who were in the tent, the one who touched the bones of the person who was killed or died a natural death, and whoever may have touched a grave. Then he is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days. On the seventh day he is considered cleansed. The cleansed person must then scrub his clothes and take a bath; by evening he is clean. But if an unclean person does not go through these cleansing procedures, he must be excommunicated from the community; he has desecrated the Sanctuary of God . The Water-of-Cleansing has not been sprinkled on him and he is ritually unclean. This is the standing rule for these cases. "The man who sprinkles the Water-of-Cleansing has to scrub his clothes; anyone else who touched the Water-of-Cleansing is also ritually unclean until evening. ²² "Anything the ritually unclean man touches becomes unclean, and the person who touches what he touched is unclean until evening."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

toucheth the dead: He who touched a dead beast was only unclean for one day - Leviticus 11:12, Leviticus 11:27, Leviticus 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! Numbers 19:16, Numbers 5:2, Numbers 9:6, Numbers 9:10, Numbers 31:19, Leviticus 11:31, Leviticus 21:1, Leviticus 21:11, Lamentations 4:14, Haggai 2:13, Romans 5:12, 2 Corinthians 6:17, Ephesians 2:1, Hebrews 9:14

man: Heb. soul of man

Reciprocal: Genesis 50:10 - seven days Leviticus 5:2 - touch Leviticus 5:3 - the uncleanness Leviticus 7:19 - General Leviticus 7:21 - the uncleanness Leviticus 15:13 - seven days Leviticus 22:4 - unclean Numbers 6:6 - he shall come Numbers 31:13 - without the camp 2 Chronicles 35:6 - sanctify Isaiah 65:4 - remain Ezekiel 39:14 - they shall Ezekiel 44:26 - General Hosea 9:4 - as

Cross-References

Genesis 19:29
And that's the story: When God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham and first got Lot out of there before he blasted those cities off the face of the Earth.

2 Kings 6:18
When the Arameans attacked, Elisha prayed to God , "Strike these people blind!" And God struck them blind, just as Elisha said.

Ecclesiastes 10:15
A decent day's work so fatigues fools That they can't find their way back to town.

Jeremiah 2:36
"You think it's just a small thing, don't you, to try out another sin-project when the first one fails? But Egypt will leave you in the lurch the same way that Assyria did. You're going to walk away from there wringing your hands. I, God , have blacklisted those you trusted. You'll get not a lick of help from them."

Acts 13:11
Barnabas, Saul, and Doctor Know-It-All The congregation in Antioch was blessed with a number of prophet-preachers and teachers: Barnabas, Simon, nicknamed Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, an advisor to the ruler Herod, Saul. One day as they were worshiping God—they were also fasting as they waited for guidance—the Holy Spirit spoke: "Take Barnabas and Saul and commission them for the work I have called them to do." So they commissioned them. In that circle of intensity and obedience, of fasting and praying, they laid hands on their heads and sent them off. Sent off on their new assignment by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Saul went down to Seleucia and caught a ship for Cyprus. The first thing they did when they put in at Salamis was preach God's Word in the Jewish meeting places. They had John along to help out as needed. They traveled the length of the island, and at Paphos came upon a Jewish wizard who had worked himself into the confidence of the governor, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man not easily taken in by charlatans. The wizard's name was Bar-Jesus. He was as crooked as a corkscrew. The governor invited Barnabas and Saul in, wanting to hear God's Word firsthand from them. But Dr. Know-It-All (that's the wizard's name in plain English) stirred up a ruckus, trying to divert the governor from becoming a believer. But Saul (or Paul), full of the Holy Spirit and looking him straight in the eye, said, "You bag of wind, you parody of a devil—why, you stay up nights inventing schemes to cheat people out of God. But now you've come up against God himself, and your game is up. You're about to go blind—no sunlight for you for a good long stretch." He was plunged immediately into a shadowy mist and stumbled around, begging people to take his hand and show him the way.

Gill's Notes on the 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, Leviticus 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 19:11. 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, Leviticus 11:24; Leviticus 11:27; Leviticus 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!