Numbers 19:9-11

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Numbers 19:9 tn Heb “it will be.”
2. Numbers 19:9 tn The expression לְמֵי נִדָּה (l^eme niddah) is “for waters of impurity.” The genitive must designate the purpose of the waters—they are for cases of impurity, and so serve for cleansing or purifying, thus “water of purification.” The word “impurity” can also mean “abhorrent” because it refers to so many kinds of impurities. It is also called a purification offering; Milgrom notes that this is fitting because the sacrificial ritual involved transfers impurity from the purified to the purifier (pp. 62-72).
3. Numbers 19:9 sn The ashes were to be stored somewhere outside the camp to be used in a water portion for cleansing someone who was defiled. This is a ritual that was enacted in the wilderness; it is something of a restoring rite for people alienated from community.
4. Numbers 19:11 tn The form is the participle with the article functioning as a substantive: “the one who touches.”
5. Numbers 19:11 tn Heb “the dead.”
6. Numbers 19:11 tn The expression is full: לְכָל־נֶפֶשׁ אָדָם (l^ekhol nefesh ʾadam)—of any life of a man, i.e., of any person.
7. Numbers 19:11 tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it follows only the participle used as the subject, but since the case is hypothetical and therefore future, this picks up the future time. The adjective “ceremonially” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.