Numbers 31:20

31:20 You must purify each garment and everything that is made of skin, everything made of goat’s hair, and everything made of wood.” ¹ 

Leviticus 11:32

11:32 Also, anything they fall on ²  when they die will become unclean – any wood vessel or garment or article of leather or sackcloth. Any such vessel with which work is done must be immersed in water ³  and will be unclean until the evening. Then it will become clean.

Leviticus 14:36

14:36 Then the priest will command that the house be cleared ⁴  before the priest enters to examine the infection ⁵  so that everything in the house ⁶  does not become unclean, ⁷  and afterward ⁸  the priest will enter to examine the house.

¹ sn These verses are a reminder that taking a life, even if justified through holy war, still separates one from the holiness of God. It is part of the violation of the fallen world, and only through the ritual of purification can one be once again made fit for the presence of the Lord.

² tn Heb “And all which it shall fall on it from them.”

³ tn Heb “in water it shall be brought.”

⁴ tn Heb “And the priest shall command and they shall clear the house.” The second verb (“and they shall clear”) states the thrust of the priest’s command, which suggests the translation “that they clear” (cf. also vv. 4a and 5a above), and for the impersonal passive rendering of the active verb (“that the house be cleared”) see the note on v. 4 above.

⁵ tn Heb “to see the infection”; KJV “to see the plague”; NASB “to look at the mark (mildew NCV).”

⁶ tn Heb “all which [is] in the house.”

⁷ sn Once the priest pronounced the house “unclean” everything in it was also officially unclean. Therefore, if they emptied the house of its furniture, etc. before the official pronouncement by the priest those possessions would thereby remain officially “clean” and avoid destruction or purification procedures.

⁸ tn Heb “and after thus.”