Numbers 19:16 - Exposition

One that is slain with a sword. This would apply especially, it would seem, to the field of battle; but the law must certainly have been relaxed in the case of soldiers. Or a bone of a man, or a grave. Thus the defilement was extended to the mouldering remains of humanity, anti even to the tombs ( μνήματα . Cf. Luke 11:44 ) which held them.