Numbers 31:23

Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
thing	דָּבָ֞ר da.Var	H1697	a word · noun, common masculine singular absolute
abide	יָבֹ֣א ya.Vo'	H935	to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fire	בָאֵ֗שׁ va.'Esh	H784	fire (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
through	תַּעֲבִ֤ירוּ ta.'a.Vi.ru	H5674	to cross over · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
fire	בָאֵשׁ֙ va.'Esh	H784	fire (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
clean	וְטָהֵ֔ר ve.ta.Her	H2891	to be pure (physical sound · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
purified	יִתְחַטָּ֑א yit.cha.Ta'	H2398	properly · verb, hithpael imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
water	בְּמֵ֥י be.Mei	H4325	water · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
separation	נִדָּ֖ה ni.Dah	H5079	properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
abideth	יָבֹ֛א ya.Vo'	H935	to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fire	בָּאֵ֖שׁ ba.'Esh	H784	fire (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
through	תַּעֲבִ֥ירוּ ta.'a.Vi.ru	H5674	to cross over · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
water	בַמָּֽיִם va.Ma.yim	H4325	water · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Numbers 19:9 And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for…
Numbers 19:17 And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto i…
1 Corinthians 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every ma…
Isaiah 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through t…
Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he sha…
Leviticus 11:32 And upon whatsoever any of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin,…
Leviticus 15:17 And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even.
Numbers 8:7 And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: Sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them w…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 31:19

abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person . . . purify both yourselves and your captives--Though the Israelites had taken the field in obedience to the command of God, they had become defiled by contact with the dead. A process of purification was to be undergone, as the law required (Lev 15:13; Num 19:9-12), and this purifying ceremony was extended to dress, houses, tents, to everything on which a dead body had lain, which had been touched by the blood-stained hands of the Israelitish warriors, or which had been the property of idolaters. This became a standing ordinance in all time coming (Lev 6:28; Lev 11:33; Lev 15:12).

John Gill on Numbers 31:23

Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire,.... Either through the smoke of the fire, and so be purified by suffumigation; or be put into the fire itself, where though they might be melted as the above things, yet not consumed as raiment, and vessels of skins, goats' hair, and wood, would be: and it shall be clean; accounted so: nevertheless, it shall be purified with the water of separation; with the water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer burnt, and sprinkled on it; see Numbers 19:9. and all that abideth not the fire; without being consumed, as whatsoever is of wood, &c. ye shall make go through the water; dip them in it, and rinse them there with a…

Read the whole note in the console

John Calvin on Numbers 31:19-24

And do ye abide without the camp seven days. We have elsewhere seen, [209] that, if any one had touched a dead body, he was accounted unclean. Moses, by now extending the ceremony of expiation to lawful homicide, intimates how carefully we ought to abstain from shedding human blood. It was required of the Israelites that they should strenuously advance through the midst of carnage; but, inasmuch as it is in a manner contrary to the order of nature that men should be killed by men, as if they were raging against their own bowels, God would have some vestiges of humanity preserved even in just punishments, so as to put a restraint upon all cruelty in the abstract. Nor is it without cause that…

Read the whole note in the console

Dictionary and topics

Jericho — Place of fragrance, a fenced city in the midst of a vast grove of palm trees, in the plain of Jordan, over against the place where that river was crossed by the Israelites (Josh. 3:16). Its site was…
Wars of the Lord, The Book of the — (Num. 21:14, 15), some unknown book so called (comp. Gen. 14:14-16; Ex. 17:8-16; Num. 14:40-45; 21:1-3, 21-25, 33-35; 31. The wars here recorded might be thus designated).
Armies Of Israel, The · Purified on returning from war — Purified on returning from war
Brass, Or Copper · Taken in war: Cleansed by fire — Taken in war: Cleansed by fire
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Midianites destroyed and Balaam slain — Midianites destroyed and Balaam slain
Fire · Characterised as: Purifying — Characterised as: Purifying
Iron · Mode of purifying, taken in war — Mode of purifying, taken in war
Metals · Ceremonially cleansed by fire — Ceremonially cleansed by fire
Purification · For those who had recently killed — For those who had recently killed
Sanitation · DISINFECTION — DISINFECTION
Silver · Taken in war purified by fire — Taken in war purified by fire

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Numbers 31:23

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 31:19

John Gill on Numbers 31:23

John Calvin on Numbers 31:19-24

Dictionary and topics

Numbers 31:23

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 31:19

John Gill on Numbers 31:23

John Calvin on Numbers 31:19-24

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Numbers 31:21-24

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Numbers 31:19-24

Rashi on Numbers 31:23