Numbers 19:9
וְאָסַף׀ אִישׁ טָהוֹר אֵת אֵפֶר הַפָּרָה וְהִנִּיחַ מִחוּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶה בְּמָקוֹם טָהוֹר וְהָיְתָה לַעֲדַת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת לְמֵי נִדָּה חַטָּאת הִֽוא׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאָסַ֣ף׀ אִ֣ישׁ טָה֗וֹר אֵ֚ת אֵ֣פֶר הַפָּרָ֔ה וְהִנִּ֛יחַ מִח֥וּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶ֖ה בְּמָק֣וֹם טָה֑וֹר וְ֠הָיְתָה לַעֲדַ֨ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֧ל לְמִשְׁמֶ֛רֶת לְמֵ֥י נִדָּ֖ה חַטָּ֥את הִֽוא׃
καὶ συνάξει ἄνθρωπος καθαρὸς τὴν σποδὸν τῆς δαμάλεως καὶ ἀποθήσει ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς εἰς τόπον καθαρόν. καὶ ἔσται τῇ συναγωγῇ υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ εἰς διατήρησιν· ὕδωρ ῥαντισμοῦ, ἅγνισμά ἐστιν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Colliget autem vir mundus cineres vaccæ, et effundet eos extra castra in loco purissimo, ut sint multitudini filiorum Israël in custodiam, et in aquam aspersionis: quia pro peccato vacca combusta est.
“Un hombre que esté puro recogerá las cenizas de la vaca y las pondrá en un lugar limpio fuera del campamento. Allí se guardarán para que la comunidad de los hijos de Israel las use en el agua de purificación. Esta es una ofrenda por el pecado.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y un hombre limpio recogerá las cenizas de la vaca, y las pondrá fuera del campo en lugar limpio, y las guardará la congregación de los hijos de Israel para el agua de separación: es una expiación.
Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and store them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept by the congregation of Israel for preparing the water of purification; this is for purification from sin.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes what happens after the red heifer is burned: a ritually clean man gathers its ashes, deposits them in a clean place outside the camp, and these ashes are kept by the Israelite community for producing what the Hebrew calls "water of niddah," itself labeled chattat ("sin offering").
Key words
- tahor ("clean", H2889) — adjective appearing twice (v.4, v.17), qualifying both the man who gathers the ashes and the place where they are stored; ritual cleanness is the condition for handling and housing the ashes.
- 'efer ha-parah ("ash of the heifer", H0665/H6510) — construct chain linking "ash" directly to "the heifer," specifying which ashes are meant.
- mishmeret ("something kept", H4931) — a noun denoting an object set aside for guarding/keeping; here it names the ashes' function for the community.
- mei niddah ("water of impurity", H4325/H5079) — construct chain "water of niddah"; niddah denotes ritual impurity/separation, so the phrase names the water by the impurity it addresses.
- chattat ("sin offering", H2403) — final predicate noun, with the pronoun hi' ("it", H1931) closing the verse as a nominal clause identifying the preceding substance.
What the text says
The verse continues a narrative sequence using three verbs in the sequential perfect (vav-consecutive) form: 'asaf ("he will gather", H0622), hiniach ("he will deposit", H5117), and hayetah ("it will become", H1961). This chain shows one action following another as part of a single procedural instruction, even though each verb is grammatically a perfect form — a common feature of Hebrew instructional/narrative prose where the vav-consecutive perfect carries a future/sequential sense.
Two construct chains do specific naming work: 'efer ha-parah ("ash of the heifer") identifies the substance precisely, and mei niddah ("water of niddah") names the water product by the impurity it treats rather than by its purifying effect — the Hebrew noun niddah (H5079) denotes impurity/separation itself, not purification.
The verse ends with a short nominal clause, chattat hi' ("it [is] a sin offering", H2403/H1931), with no verb: the pronoun hi' points back to the ash-water complex just described, formally classifying it under the category chattat.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew closing clause chattat hi' ("it is a sin offering") is rendered by the LXX as ἅγνισμά ἐστιν ("it is a purification"), using a term tied to cleansing rather than the sin-offering category named in Hebrew. The Vulgate diverges further, restructuring the clause as "quia pro peccato vacca combusta est" ("because the heifer was burned for sin"), turning the nominal identification into a causal explanation not present as such in the Hebrew syntax. Modern translations split accordingly: BSB and SBLIBRE follow a "purification from sin / offering for sin" sense closer to the LXX-Vulgate tradition, while RV1909's "expiación" stays closer to the sin-offering category of the Hebrew chattat. Additionally, mei niddah is translated variously as "agua de separación" (RV1909, echoing niddah's separation sense) versus "water of purification" (BSB, SBLIBRE), reflecting differing emphases on the Hebrew term's impurity-versus-purification connotation.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.