Numbers 6:6

“‘All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he must not contact ¹  a dead body. ² 

Le 19:28; Nu 19:11-16; Jer 16:5,6; Eze 24:16-18; Mt 8:21,22; Lu 9:59,60; 2Co 5:16

¹ tn The Hebrew verb is simply “enter, go,” no doubt with the sense of go near.

² tn The Hebrew has נֶפֶשׁ מֵת (nefesh met), literally a “dead person.” But since the word נֶפֶשׁ can also be used for animals, the restriction would be for any kind of corpse. Death was very much a part of the fallen world, and so for one so committed to the Lord, avoiding all such contamination would be a witness to the greatest separation, even in a family.