Numbers 31:24

Modern

On the seventh day you are to wash your clothes, and you will be clean. After that you may enter the camp.”

Traditional

And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp.

Literal

And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may come into the camp.”

Latin

…et lavabitis vestimenta vestra die septimo, et purificati postea castra intrabitis.

Hebrew

English

On the seventh day you are to wash your clothes, and you will be clean. After that you may enter the camp.”

Israelite soldiers who touched dead bodies became ceremonially unclean (ritually impure). They had to go through the required purification rituals.

These rituals were routine, but they were important. They also had to purify their equipment (see 5:1–4; 19:1–22).

Theme notes and profiles

Leviticus 11:25
…and whoever picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening.
Numbers 19:19
The man who is ceremonially clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. After he purifies the unclean person on the seventh day, the one being cleansed must wash his clothes and bathe in water, and that evening he will be clean.
Leviticus 14:9
On the seventh day he must shave off all his hair—his head, his beard, his eyebrows, and the rest of his hair. He must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, and he will be clean.
Leviticus 15:13
When the man has been cleansed from his discharge, he must count off seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe himself in fresh water, and he shall be clean.