Anything and anyone that a defiled person touches will be ceremonially unclean until evening.”
Parallel translations
- WEB “Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.”
- KJV And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.
- BSB Anything the unclean person touches will become unclean, and anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.”
- NKJV Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”
- NASB Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches will be unclean; and the person who touches it will be unclean until evening.’ ”
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
Uncleanness spread by contact, defiling whatever and whoever the unclean person touched until evening. Impurity was contagious, but holiness had to be deliberately applied.
Overview
This closing principle shows the pervasive, spreading nature of ritual defilement under the law. Sin and death contaminate readily, while purity must be granted from outside. In Jesus the order is reversed: His holiness is communicated to the unclean who come to Him, healing rather than being defiled.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- 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 7:19“‘The meat that touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten. It shall be burned with fire. As for the meat, everyone who is clean may eat it;
- Matt 15:19–20For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
- Mark 7:21–23For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
- Lev 5:2“‘Or if anyone touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean animal, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and it is hidden from him, and he is unclean, then he shall be guilty.
- Lev 15:5Whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and 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 19:22 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.