Numbers 19:14

Summary

The verse states a legal formula (torah) concerning ritual impurity when a person dies inside a tent. It specifies that anyone entering that tent, as well as anyone already present inside it, becomes unclean for a period of seven days.

Key words

• torah ("law", H8451) — feminine singular noun, here functioning as the technical heading introducing a specific ritual regulation ("this is the torah...").
• ki ("if", H3588A) — conditional particle introducing the hypothetical circumstance ("if a man dies").
• ha-Ba' ("the one who goes/enters", H0935G) — Qal participle, masculine singular, with article; participles in Hebrew denote ongoing or characteristic action, here designating "whoever enters" as a class of person, not a single completed act.
• yitma' ("he will be unclean", H2930A) — Qal imperfect, third person masculine singular; imperfect aspect marks future/ongoing result, indicating the state of impurity that follows the condition.
• shiv'at yamim ("seven of days", H7651 + H3117G) — cardinal number in construct state governing "days," a fixed idiomatic duration for the impurity period.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the demonstrative zot ("this", H2063) plus the article ha- ("the", H9009) attached to torah, forming a formulaic introduction: "this is the torah." This construction is typical of legal-cultic sections in the Hebrew Bible, functioning as a heading that frames what follows as a specific rule rather than a narrative statement.

The conditional clause is built with ki ("if", H3588A) plus the Qal imperfect yamut ("he will die", H4191), describing a hypothetical death occurring be-'ohel ("in a tent", H0168G with preposition be-, H9003). The subject of the rule is then expanded through two parallel constructions using kol ("every/all", H3605): first kol ha-Ba' 'el ha-'ohel ("everyone who enters into the tent"), using a participle to denote a class of people characterized by the ongoing action of entering; second ve-khol 'asher ba-'ohel ("and everyone who is in the tent"), using the relative particle 'asher ("who/that", H0834A) to denote those already present, without implying motion. This grammatical pairing distinguishes between those who go in and those who are already inside, both falling under the same consequence.

The consequence is expressed by the Qal imperfect yitma' ("he will be unclean", H2930A), governing both subject groups collectively, followed by the duration phrase shiv'at yamim ("seven of days", H7651 in construct with H3117G), a fixed formula for the length of the impurity state.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text uses 'ohel ("tent", H0168G) throughout, while the LXX renders this as oikia ("house") and the Vulgate as tabernaculum/tentorium ("tent, tabernacle"), showing a shift in the LXX from a tent-specific term to a more general dwelling term. The LXX also adds a clause about "vessels" (σκεύη implied in Vulgate's universa vasa) being unclean, which is not present in the Hebrew word list given for this verse but appears in the Vulgate as "universa vasa quæ ibi sunt" ("all vessels that are there"), an expansion not reflected in the Hebrew data provided.