Numbers 19:12
Shall be sprinkled with this water on the third day, and on the seventh, and so shall be cleansed. If he were not sprinkled on the third day, he cannot be cleansed on the seventh.
Open Numbers 19:12 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- aspergetur ex hac aqua die tertio et septimo, et sic mundabitur. Si die tertio aspersus non fuerit, septimo non poterit emundari.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὗτος ἁγνισθήσεται τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ, καὶ καθαρὸς ἔσται· ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἀφαγνισθῇ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ, οὐ καθαρὸς ἔσται.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- ה֣וּא יִתְחַטָּא ב֞וֹ בַּיּ֧וֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁ֛י וּבַיּ֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י יִטְהָ֑ר וְאִם לֹ֨א יִתְחַטָּ֜א בַּיּ֧וֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁ֛י וּבַיּ֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י לֹ֥א יִטְהָֽר
Haydock's commentary
Seventh. If he neglect to be sprinkled on the third day, his purification will be protracted till the 10th. As this was the only means of removing the legal uncleanness contracted by touching a dead body, some of the ashes must have been reserved in various parts of the country, after the Israelites were dispersed. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Cyprian The Epistles of Cyprian, Epistle LXXV
12. You have asked also, dearest son, what I thought of those who obtain God’s grace in sickness and weakness, whether they are to be accounted legitimate Christians, for that they are not to be washed, but sprinkled, with the saving water. In this point, my diffidence and modesty prejudges none, so as to prevent any from feeling what he thinks right, and from doing what he feels to be right. As far as my poor understanding conceives it, I think that the divine benefits can in no respect be mutilated and weakened; nor can anything less occur in that case, where, with full and entire faith both of the giver and receiver, is accepted what is drawn from the divine gifts. …