Numbers 14:39

14:39 When Moses told ¹  these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned ²  greatly.

Numbers 19:13

19:13 Anyone who touches the corpse of any dead person and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. And that person must be cut off from Israel, ³  because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

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¹ tn The preterite here is subordinated to the next preterite to form a temporal clause.

² tn The word אָבַל (’aval) is rare, used mostly for mourning over deaths, but it is used here of mourning over bad news (see also Exod 33:4; 1 Sam 15:35; 16:1; etc.).

³ sn It is in passages like this that the view that being “cut off” meant the death penalty is the hardest to support. Would the Law prescribe death for someone who touches a corpse and fails to follow the ritual? Besides, the statement in this section that his uncleanness remains with him suggests that he still lives on.