Numbers 6:6

6:6 “‘All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he must not contact ¹  a dead body. ² 

[6:6]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb is simply “enter, go,” no doubt with the sense of go near.

[6:6]  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.