19 (A)Encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever of you has killed any person and (B)whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. 20 You shall purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goats' hair, and every article of wood.”

21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men in the army who had gone to battle: “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded Moses: 22 only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, 23 everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified (C)with the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass through the water. 24 You must (D)wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean. And afterward you may come into the camp.”

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Purification after the Battle

19 “Now you are to stay outside the camp for seven days, after which any of you who has killed a person[a] or touched someone who was killed may purify yourselves on the third day. You and your captives will be pure on the seventh day. 20 Furthermore, you are to purify every garment—that is, everything made of leather, goat’s hair, or containing wood.”

21 Eleazar the priest told the soldiers who had gone to battle, “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded Moses 22 concerning anything containing gold, silver, brass, iron, tin, lead, 23 or anything else that can survive a refiner’s fire: You are to pass it through fire, after which it will be clean. Then it is to be purified with the water of impurity. Everything that cannot survive a refiner’s fire is to be washed in water. 24 Wash your clothes on the seventh day, after which you will be clean. Then you may enter the camp.”

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Footnotes

  1. Numbers 31:19 Lit. soul