Verses 22-23 deal with purifying items that are ritually impure due to touching corpses in a battle. Fireproof substances must pass through fire, and then they must be washed in the specially prepared water for impurity to complete the process of purification. Substances that are not fireproof must simply be cleansed with that water (so Alter, page 844).

Only renders the Hebrew particle ʾak, which usually introduces a limitation of something previously mentioned (so Ashley, page 596). However, here it introduces a restriction without mentioning something first.

The gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead: These metals are listed from highest to lowest in value. Most languages will have words for silver, even if they are borrowed words, and most will also be familiar with tin, iron, and lead. For bronze see 16.39.

Everything that can stand the fire refers to everything that can be passed through fire without being destroyed or melted. It may be necessary to make it clear that this clause describes the metals just mentioned by saying “that is, all metals that do not burn” (New Living Translation) or “in one word, all that resists the fire” (SPCL).

You shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean: The metals must be placed in a fire to become ritually pure. New Living Translation says “[all metals] must be passed through fire in order to be made ceremonially pure.”

Nevertheless it shall also be purified with the water of impurity: For Revised Standard Version and most other translations the Hebrew clause here means the water for removing ritual impurity is also needed to purify any metal that has been placed in the fire. They take the pronoun it as a reference to everything that can stand the fire. In some languages Nevertheless … also is better rendered “and moreover” (Levine), “but … still” (NET Bible), or “even though [also]” (Reina-Valera Contemporánea, Reina-Valera revisida) to connect this clause with the preceding sentence. Only a few translations connect this clause with what follows (that is, the substances that are not fireproof); for example, Revised English Bible renders the last half of verse 23 as “Other things must be purified by the water of ritual purification; whatever cannot stand fire is to be passed through the water” (similarly Good News Translation, La Nouvelle Bible Segond). We prefer the interpretation in Revised Standard Version. For the water of impurity, see the comments on 19.9. Good News Translation has “the water for purification.” In 19.9 Good News Translation translated the same phrase more explicitly and accurately as “the water for removing ritual uncleanness.”

And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass through the water: The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered and indicates that the clause before it should be connected to the metals that are fireproof, and not to the flammable items mentioned here. Good News Translation renders whatever as “Everything else,” which is a helpful model. The water refers to the water of impurity, which is needed to purify whatever can be destroyed by fire.

We recommend the following model based on New Living Translation for verses 22-23:

• 22 Only anything made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead—23 that is, all metals that do not burn—must be passed through fire in order to be made ceremonially pure. Then these metal objects must be further purified with the water of purification. But everything that burns must be purified by the water alone.

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 .