After the more general paragraph of verses 11-13, verses 11-22 apply the purification procedure in more detail by means of several particular cases.

This is the law when a man dies in a tent …: The first particular case involves being with a corpse in a tent. For the Hebrew word rendered law (torah), see the comments on 5.29. Here it may be translated “ritual” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “ritual law” (New Living Translation). Good News Translation leaves the idea of law implied here, but it would be better to make it explicit by beginning this verse with “This is the ritual law that applies when someone dies inside a tent…” (New Living Translation). For tent see 1.1.

Every one who comes into the tent, and every one who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days: Good News Translation helpfully adds “at the time of death” to this sentence, saying “anyone who is in the tent at the time of death or who enters it becomes ritually unclean for seven days.”

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .