What Does It Mean to be Unclean?

If unclean, you must be cleansed or you will be cut off from Israel.

Numbers 19:13

[13] Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

Leviticus 7:19-21

[19] “Flesh that touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten. It shall be burned up with fire. All who are clean may eat flesh, [20] but the person who eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of the LORD’s peace offerings while an uncleanness is on him, that person shall be cut off from his people. [21] And if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether human uncleanness or an unclean beast or any unclean detestable creature, and then eats some flesh from the sacrifice of the LORD’s peace offerings, that person shall be cut off from his people.”

Unclean people must be put outside of the camp b/c that is where the LORD dwells and they cannot be in His presence.

Numbers 5:1-3

[1] The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, [2] “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. [3] You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.”

Leviticus 22:3

[3] Say to them, ‘If any one of all your offspring throughout your generations approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to the LORD, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD.