‘The one who touches the dead body of any person will also be unclean for seven days.
Parallel translations
- WEB “He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
- KJV He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
- BSB Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days.
- NKJV ‘He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days.
- NLT “All those who touch a dead human body will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Anyone who touched a human corpse became unclean for seven days, marking death as a serious source of defilement.
Overview
Contact with death, the great consequence of sin, rendered a person ceremonially unclean for a full week. This law set death apart as deeply defiling, separating it from the holy presence of God. It reflects the biblical truth that death is an intruder and enemy, and it heightens longing for the One who conquers death.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Num 5:2“Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has an issue, and whoever is unclean by the dead.
- Num 31:19“Encamp outside of the camp 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.
- Lev 21:1Yahweh said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ‘A priest shall not defile himself for the dead among his people;
- Lev 21:11He must not go in to any dead body, or defile himself for his father, or for his mother.
- Num 9:10“Say to the children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh.
- Num 19:16“Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
- Rom 5:12Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
- Num 9:6There were certain men, who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.
- Heb 9:14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
- 2 Cor 6:17Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.
- Lam 4:14They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, So that men can’t touch their garments.
- Eph 2:1You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
- Hag 2:13Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean by reason of a dead body touch any of these, will it be unclean?” The priests answered, “It will be unclean.”
- Lev 11:31These are they which are unclean to you among all that creep. Whoever touches them when they are dead, shall be unclean until the evening.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 19:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.