Nevertheless: there is contrast between the objects mentioned here, which remain clean, and those above, which are ritually unclean. The transition word used at the beginning of this verse should indicate this contrast.

A spring or a cistern: the first word refers to a natural spring of fresh water. The second is a pit hollowed out of a solid rock for the purpose of storing drinking water (see Jer 2.13). They may be as large as six meters square and six meters deep. And they were normally to be kept covered (Exo 21.33). The expression a cistern holding water may be translated “a hollowed place in a rock for storing water” or something similar.

The Hebrew text, followed by Revised Standard Version, leaves implicit the idea “if a dead body falls on them,” but this may have to be made explicit in translation.

Whatever: as in verse 24 and 6.18, 27, this term may mean either “whatever” or “whoever.” In this case it is translated “whoever” by New American Bible. New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version have “anyone,” and An American Translation has “he who….” Bible en français courant interprets it as “whoever removes the body….” On the side of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, Moffatt has “anything used to lift out the dead body…,” which is more explicit. The meaning may well be a combination of these two: “anyone or anything involved in removing the dead body.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .