Numbers 31:19

19 "All of you who have killed anyone must stay outside the camp for seven days. And all of you who have touched anyone who was killed must do the same thing. On the third and seventh days you must make yourselves pure. You must also make your prisoners pure.

Numbers 31:19 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 31:19

And do ye abide without the camp seven days.
&c.] Which was the time that anyone that touched a dead body remained unclean, ( Numbers 19:11 ) ,

whosoever hath killed any person;
as most of them if not all must have done; all the males of Midian that fell into their hands being slain by them, that were men grown:

and whosoever hath touched any slain;
as they must to strip them of their garments, and take their spoil from them:

purify both yourselves and your captives, on the third and on the
seventh day;
which were the days appointed for the purification of such that were polluted by touching dead bodies, ( Numbers 19:11 ) and their captives, which were the female little ones; (for as for the women, and males among the little ones, they were ordered to be slain;) though they were Heathens, yet inasmuch as they were to be for the service of the Israelites, and to be brought up in their religion, they were to be purified also; to which purpose is the note of Jarchi;

``not that the Gentiles receive uncleanness and need sprinkling, but as ye are the children of the covenant, so your captives, when they come into the covenant, and are defiled, need sprinkling.''

Numbers 31:19 In-Context

17 Kill all of the boys. And kill every woman who has made love to a man.

18 But save for yourselves every woman who has never made love to a man.

19 "All of you who have killed anyone must stay outside the camp for seven days. And all of you who have touched anyone who was killed must do the same thing. On the third and seventh days you must make yourselves pure. You must also make your prisoners pure.

20 Make all of your clothes pure and clean. Everything that is made out of leather, goat hair or wood must be made pure."

21 Then the priest Eleazar spoke to the soldiers who had gone into battle. He said, "Here is what the law the LORD gave Moses requires.