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Purify every garment, everything made of leather, everything woven of goats’ hair, and everything made of wood.”
Numbers 31:20 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB As to every garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made of wood, you shall purify yourselves.”
  • KJV And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made of wood.
  • BSB And purify every garment and leather good, everything made of goat’s hair, and every article of wood.”
  • NASB And you shall purify for yourselves every garment, every article of leather, every work of goats’ hair, and every article of wood.”
  • NLT Purify all your clothing, too, and everything made of leather, goat hair, or wood.”

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

Garments and items of skin, goats' hair, or wood also had to be purified.

Overview

Objects exposed to death required cleansing along with the people. The law extended holiness even to possessions, teaching that defilement touches all it contacts. This thoroughness foreshadows the comprehensive cleansing from sin that God provides, fully accomplished through the blood of Christ.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 4

  • Num 19:22“Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.”
  • Num 19:14–16“This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.
  • Exod 19:10Yahweh said to Moses, “Go to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments,
  • Gen 35:2Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Numbers videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Numbers 31:20YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on NumbersMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 31:20 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.