Text -- Numbers 6:6 (NET)

6:6 “‘All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he must not contact a dead body.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Num 6:6

¹ tn The Hebrew verb is simply “enter, go,” no doubt with the sense of go near.

² tn The Hebrew has נֶפֶשׁ מֵת (nefesh met), literally a “dead person.” But since the word נֶפֶשׁ can also be used for animals, the restriction would be for any kind of corpse. Death was very much a part of the fallen world, and so for one so committed to the Lord, avoiding all such contamination would be a witness to the greatest separation, even in a family.