'Unclean' in the Bible

“This is the law when a person dies in a tent: everyone who enters the tent and everyone who is already in the tent will be unclean for seven days,

and any open container without a lid tied on it is unclean.

Anyone in the open field who touches a person who has been killed by the sword or has died, or who even touches a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

For the purification of the unclean person, they are to take some of the ashes of the burnt sin offering, put them in a jar, and add fresh water to them.

“The one who is clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and the seventh day. After he purifies the unclean person on the seventh day, the one being purified must wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he will be clean by evening.

But a person who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person will be cut off from the assembly because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.

This is a permanent statute for them. The person who sprinkles the water for impurity is to wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water for impurity will be unclean until evening.

Anything the unclean person touches will become unclean, and anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.”

Do not make the land unclean where you live and where I reside; for I, Yahweh, reside among the Israelites.”

“But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you. Those who are clean or unclean may eat it, as they would a gazelle or deer,

Indeed, you may eat it as the gazelle and deer are eaten; both the clean and the unclean may eat it.

But among the ones that chew the cud or have divided hooves, you are not to eat these:the camel, the hare, and the hyrax,though they chew the cud, they do not have hooves—they are unclean for you;

and the pig, though it has hooves, it does not chew the cud—it is unclean for you.You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses.

but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales—it is unclean for you.

All winged insects are unclean for you; they may not be eaten.

Eat it within your gates; both the unclean person and the clean may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or deer.

If there is a man among you who is unclean because of a bodily emission during the night, he must go outside the camp; he may not come anywhere inside the camp.

I have not eaten any of it while in mourning, or removed any of it while unclean, or offered any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done all You commanded me.

Now please be careful not to drink wine or beer, or to eat anything unclean;

He said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Therefore, do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth until the day of his death.’”

She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine or drink wine or beer. And she must not eat anything unclean. Your wife must do everything I have commanded her.”

Saul did not say anything that day because he thought, “Something unexpected has happened; he must be ceremonially unclean—yes, that’s it, he is unclean.”

He stationed gatekeepers at the gates of the Lord’s temple so that nothing unclean could enter for any reason.

for there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves, and so the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for every unclean person to consecrate the lambs to the Lord.

A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—were ritually unclean, yet they had eaten the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah had interceded for them, saying, “May the good Lord provide atonement on behalf of

Everything is the same for everyone: there is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as for the one who takes an oath, so for the one who fears an oath.

Then I said:Woe is me for I am ruinedbecause I am a man of unclean lipsand live among a people of unclean lips,and because my eyes have seen the King,the Lord of Hosts.

A road will be there and a way;it will be called the Holy Way.The unclean will not travel on it,but it will be for the one who walks the path.Even the fool will not go astray.

“Wake up, wake up;put on your strength, Zion!Put on your beautiful garments,Jerusalem, the Holy City!For the uncircumcised and the uncleanwill no longer enter you.

Leave, leave, go out from there!Do not touch anything unclean;go out from her, purify yourselves,you who carry the vessels of the Lord.

All of us have become like something unclean,and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment;all of us wither like a leaf,and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

Your adulteries and your lustful neighing,your heinous prostitutionon the hills, in the fields—I have seen your detestable acts.Woe to you, Jerusalem!You are unclean—for how long yet?

ס Samek“Stay away! Unclean!” people shouted at them.“Away, away! Don’t touch us!”So they wandered aimlessly.It was said among the nations,“They can stay here no longer.”

The Lord said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their bread—ceremonially unclean—among the nations where I will banish them.”

Her priests do violence to My instruction and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they do not explain the difference between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

They must teach My people the difference between the holy and the common, and explain to them the difference between the clean and the unclean.

They will not stay in the land of the Lord.Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.

On that day”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“I will erase the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

Summoning His 12 disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness.

“When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn’t find any.

Just then a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue. He cried out,

And the unclean spirit convulsed him, shouted with a loud voice, and came out of him.

Then they were all amazed, so they began to argue with one another, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”

Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, those possessed fell down before Him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!”

because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

As soon as He got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met Him.

For He had told him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

And He gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd of about 2,000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there.

He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits.

They observed that some of His disciples were eating their bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands.

Then the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why don’t Your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ritually unclean hands?”

Instead, immediately after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at His feet.

When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly coming together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!”

In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice,

Amazement came over them all, and they kept saying to one another, “What is this message? For He commands the unclean spirits with authority and power, and they come out!”

They came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and those tormented by unclean spirits were made well.

For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was guarded, bound by chains and shackles, he would snap the restraints and be driven by the demon into deserted places.

As the boy was still approaching, the demon knocked him down and threw him into severe convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, cured the boy, and gave him back to his father.

“When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it roams through waterless places looking for rest, and not finding rest, it then says, ‘I’ll go back to my house where I came from.’

In addition, a large group came together from the towns surrounding Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.

“No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything common and ritually unclean!”

Peter said to them, “You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner. But God has shown me that I must not call any person common or unclean.

“‘No, Lord!’ I said. ‘For nothing common or ritually unclean has ever entered my mouth!’

(I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.)

For the unbelieving husband is set apart for God by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is set apart for God by the husband. Otherwise your children would be corrupt, but now they are set apart for God.

Therefore, come out from among themand be separate, says the Lord;do not touch any unclean thing,and I will welcome you.

Then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming from the dragon’s mouth, from the beast’s mouth, and from the mouth of the false prophet.

He cried in a mighty voice:It has fallen,Babylon the Great has fallen!She has become a dwelling for demons,a haunt for every unclean spirit,a haunt for every unclean bird,and a haunt for every unclean and despicable beast.