Numbers 19:12

Summary

The verse establishes a two-stage purification procedure requiring ritual action on both the third and seventh days. It states the positive outcome (becoming pure) if the procedure is followed, and the negative outcome (remaining impure) if it is not.

Key words

• yit.cha.ta' ("he will purify himself", H2398) — hithpael imperfect, reflexive form indicating the subject performs the purification action on himself, repeated twice in the verse (once affirmed, once negated).
• yit.Har ("he will be pure", H2891) — qal imperfect, a simple (non-reflexive) verb describing the resulting state of purity, distinct in stem from the reflexive verb above.
• ba.Yom ha.she.li.Shi ("on the third day", H9003+H3117G+H9009+H7992) — preposition + noun + article + ordinal, marking the first temporal point of the ritual.
• u.va.Yom ha.she.vi.'i ("and on the seventh day", H9002+H9003+H3117G+H9009+H7637) — conjunction + prepositional phrase, marking the second temporal point.
• 'im lo' ("if not", H0518A+H3808) — conditional particle plus negation, introducing the contrastive clause that mirrors the first half of the verse in negated form.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parallel halves connected by ve'im lo' ("and if not", H9002+H0518A+H3808). The first half uses the hithpael verb yit.cha.ta' (H2398) for the reflexive act of self-purification "on the third day" (ba.Yom ha.she.li.Shi) and then a distinct qal verb yit.Har (H2891) for the resulting state of being pure, placed at "the seventh day" (u.va.Yom ha.she.vi.'i). This grammatical distinction—reflexive verb for the action, simple verb for the state—shows the Hebrew treating the act of purification and the condition of purity as separate steps occurring on different days.

The second half repeats the identical temporal structure but negates both verbs: lo' yit.cha.ta' ("he will not purify himself") on the third day, and lo' yit.Har ("he will not be pure") on the seventh day. This exact syntactic mirroring—same nouns, same ordinal numbers, same verb roots, only the negation added—creates a structural parallel that ties the failure to act on day three directly to the failure to attain purity on day seven, without an intervening independent clause explaining causation; the syntax itself performs the linkage through repetition.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two Hebrew verbs yit.cha.ta' (H2398, "purify himself") and yit.Har (H2891, "be pure") using ἁγνισθήσεται ("will be purified") and καθαρὸς ἔσται ("will be clean") for the first occurrence, but ἀφαγνισθῇ (a different verb, "be purified away/thoroughly") for the second occurrence, where the Hebrew uses the same root yit.cha.ta' both times. The Vulgate introduces "aspergetur ex hac aqua" ("he will be sprinkled with this water"), specifying the water explicitly, where the Hebrew verb yit.cha.ta' itself does not name water but simply denotes reflexive purification.