And every open vessel, which has no cover fastened upon it, is unclean: Every open vessel refers to any open jar or pot in the tent with the corpse. As Good News Translation‘s footnote indicates, there is some uncertainty about the Hebrew clause rendered which has no cover fastened upon it. Nothing specific is said in the Hebrew text about the way the cover is supposed to be attached to the vessel. What matters is that the vessel’s contents are considered contaminated if there is any crack in its seal or if it is standing open in any way. Good models for this clause are “that has no tight lid on it” (Alter) and “which has not been closed with a tight lid” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). A possible model for the whole verse is:

• Any jar or pot in the tent that is not closed tightly becomes ritually unclean.

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 .