What Does Numbers 19:19 Mean in the King James?
And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verb for “purify” shares its root with words for missing and offense, so cleansing here is the removal of what has gone wrong.
THE MEANING
This verse shows cleansing unfolding through a shared act and an embodied sequence: a clean person sprinkles on the third and seventh days, then the person being cleansed washes and bathes. Cleanness arrives at evening, after the actions and the appointed time.
THE ROOT
וְחִטְּאוֹ
weḥiṭṭeʾo
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
Miss or incur offense; in the Piel stem here, cleanse or decontaminate.
The verb translated “purify” comes from the same root as words for missing or offense, though this ritual form means to cleanse. The shared word-family presents purification as removal of a condition, a link hidden by the English words “sin” and “purify.”
ALSO GROWS
ḥet: Missing; offense
חֵטְא
The same root names the condition from which the ritual verb cleanses.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Purification offering; offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
Numbers 19:9 uses this word for the prepared ashes, linking the rite’s cleansing action with the removal of impurity.
הַטָּהֹר
haṭṭāhōr
GROWS FROM
טהר
ṭ-h-r
Be clean or pure.
One root names the clean person who acts and the cleanness reached at evening. The word-family holds the process’s starting condition and its endpoint together.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāhôr: Clean; pure
טָהוֹר
This adjective describes the person who begins the sprinkling.
ṭohŏrāh: Purity; cleanness
טָהֳרָה
The noun names the state toward which the verse’s sequence moves.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing is enacted through sprinkling and washing, with cleanness reached at a defined completion.
And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.THE THREAD
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.Psalm 51:7 repeats the same Hebrew verb roots for cleansing, becoming clean, and washing that structure this verse. The sequence becomes a first-person plea, revealing shared language between ritual cleansing and a request for inner restoration.
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