וְאָסַ֣ף ׀ אִ֣ישׁ טָה֗וֹר אֵ֚ת אֵ֣פֶר הַפָּרָ֔ה וְהִנִּ֛יחַ מִח֥וּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶ֖ה בְּמָק֣וֹם טָה֑וֹר וְ֠הָיְתָ֠ה לַעֲדַ֨ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֧ל לְמִשְׁמֶ֛רֶת לְמֵ֥י נִדָּ֖ה חַטָּ֥את הִֽוא׃
Someone else who is pure shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a pure place, to be kept for water of lustration for the Israelite community. It is for purgation.
(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation. Before accounting for this rendering, I will analyze the plain sense of the Hebrew term אִישׁ, by employing a situation-oriented construal as outlined in this introduction, pp. 11–16.)
Prototypically, the situating noun אִישׁ labels an essential party whose involvement defines the situation of interest. At the same time, by regarding its referent in terms of the overall situation, אִישׁ directs our attention to that situation.
Here, the presence of אִישׁ carries out its prototypical function. It efficiently introduces an additional participant into the situation under discussion, one whose involvement substantially alters that situation. (Subsequently, in the next verse, this party is referenced in terms of function, with a participle rather than a situating noun.)
Because the reference is non-specific (i.e., to a type of person), the noun phrase אִישׁ does not itself constrain the gender of its referent (Stein 2008; Stein 2013).
A priest is not specified for this role, but that qualification might go without saying. (In his JPS Torah Commentary volume, Jacob Milgrom, citing Midrash Sifrei § 124, states that the gatherer is not necessarily a priest. Although Ibn Ezra understands the priest mentioned in v. 7 to be the same as הַשֹּׂרֵף in v. 8, that reading does not make sense, because then the two sentences would be redundant. And while Chiz’kuni seems to assume that the gatherer is a priest, he offers no supporting evidence.) At any rate, gender is not at issue in the text itself. There is no reliable indication to exclude women from view.
Other biblical usages of singular אִישׁ to introduce an additional party as constitutive of the depicted situation (often rendered with terms like “another…” or “someone else”) include: Gen 31:50; 41:38; 45:1; Exod 2:12; 12:44; 34:3; Lev 7:8; 16:21; 19:20; 20:10 (2nd instance); Num 5:13, 19; 19:18; Deut 19:16; Josh 10:14; Judg 16:19; 1 Sam 2:25 (2nd instance); 10:22; 12:4; 2 Sam 17:18; 18:26 (2nd instance); 21:4; 1 Kgs 20:20 (2nd instance); 2 Kgs 12:5 (2nd instance); Isa 3:5 (2nd instance); Ezek 1:11 (2nd instance); 18:8 (2nd instance); Ps 49:17; Prov 20:5; Est 1:8. Nearly all of these cases employ the bare noun.
As for rendering into English, the NJPS “A man” nowadays unduly emphasizes the referent’s gender, prompting the misleading implication that gender is at issue. Rather, the issue is that this participant is someone else aside from the priest who has been the main actor up to this point. The revised rendering makes this point more clearly.