Defilement
56 passages listed in Nave’s Topical Bible and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook. Verse text: Berean Standard Bible; links open in your translation.
51 sections
- Caused by Childbirth
- Caused by Copulation
- Caused by Gonorrhea
- Caused by Killing in Battle
- Caused by Leprosy
- Caused by Menses
- Caused by Spermatorrhea
- Caused by Touching Carcass of an Unclean Thing
- Caused by Touching the Carcass of Any Ceremonially Unclean Animal
- Caused by Touching the Dead
- Causes of, Improperly Enlarged by Tradition
- Ceremonial Caused by Being Alone with a Dead Body
- Ceremonial Caused by Burning the Red Heifer
- Ceremonial Caused by Child Bearing
- Ceremonial Caused by Eating Things That Died
- Ceremonial Caused by Eating Unclean Things
- Ceremonial Caused by Gathering the Ashes of the Red Heifer
- Ceremonial Caused by Going Into a Leprous House
- Ceremonial Caused by Having a Leprosy
- Ceremonial Caused by Having an Issue
- Ceremonial Caused by Mourning for the Dead
- Ceremonial Caused by Sacrificing the Red Heifer
- Ceremonial Caused by Touching a Dead Beast
- Ceremonial Caused by Touching a Dead Body or a Bone
- Ceremonial Caused by Touching a Grave
- Ceremonial Caused by Touching an Unclean Person
- Ceremonial Caused by Touching Anything Defiled by an Issue
- Ceremonial, Abolished Under the Gospel
- Cleansed by Legal offerings
- Contact with Sinners Falsely Supposed to Cause
- Egyptian Usage, Concerning
- Forbidden to the Jews
- Laws Relating To
- Moral, Caused by Blood Shedding
- Moral, Caused by Following the Sins of the Heathen
- Moral, Caused by Giving Children to Molech
- Moral, Caused by Making and Serving Idols
- Moral, Caused by Seeking After Wizards
- Moral, Punished
- Neglecting Purification From, Punished by Cutting off
- Priests: Not to Eat Holy Things While Under
- Priests: Punished for Eating of the Holy Things While Under
- Priests: Specially Required to Avoid
- Priests: To Decide in all Cases of
- Things Liable to Ceremonial: Furniture
- Things Liable to Ceremonial: Garments
- Things Liable to Ceremonial: Houses
- Things Liable to Ceremonial: The Land
- Things Liable to Ceremonial: The Person
- Things Liable to Ceremonial: The Sanctuary
- Those Under, Removed from the Camp
Caused by Childbirth
- Leviticus 12:2–8 “Say to the Israelites, ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be unclean for seven days, as she is during the days of her menstruation. …
- Luke 2:22 And when the time of purification according to the Law of Moses was complete, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord
Caused by Copulation
- Leviticus 15:17 Any clothing or leather on which there is an emission of semen must be washed with water, and it will remain unclean until evening.
Caused by Gonorrhea
- Leviticus 15:1–15 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, …
- Leviticus 22:4 If a descendant of Aaron has a skin disease or a discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything defiled by a corpse or by a man who has an emission of semen,
Caused by Killing in Battle
- Numbers 31:19–20 All of you who have killed a person or touched the dead are to remain outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and the seventh day you are to purify both yourselves and your captives. …
Caused by Leprosy
- Leviticus 13:3 The priest is to examine the infection on his skin, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.
- Leviticus 13:44–46 the man is diseased; he is unclean. The priest must pronounce him unclean because of the infection on his head. …
- Leviticus 14:1 Then the LORD said to Moses,
- Leviticus 22:4–7 If a descendant of Aaron has a skin disease or a discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything defiled by a corpse or by a man who has an emission of semen, …
Caused by Menses
- Leviticus 15:19–33 When a woman has a discharge consisting of blood from her body, she will be unclean due to her menstruation for seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. …
- 2 Samuel 11:4 Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home.
Caused by Spermatorrhea
- Leviticus 15:16–17 When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he will be unclean until evening. …
Caused by Touching Carcass of an Unclean Thing
- Leviticus 5:2–13 Or if a person touches anything unclean— whether the carcass of any unclean wild animal or livestock or crawling creature— even if he is unaware of it, he is unclean and guilty. …
- Leviticus 11:8 You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.
- Leviticus 11:24–28 These creatures will make you unclean. Whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until evening, …
- Leviticus 11:31–38 These animals are unclean for you among all the crawling creatures. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening. …
- Leviticus 14:46–57 Anyone who enters the house during any of the days that it is closed up will be unclean until evening. …
- Leviticus 15:5–11 Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening. …
- Deuteronomy 23:10–11 If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp and stay outside. …
Caused by Touching the Carcass of Any Ceremonially Unclean Animal
- Leviticus 11:39–40 If an animal that you may eat dies, anyone who touches the carcass will be unclean until evening. …
- Leviticus 17:15–16 And any person, whether native or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening; then he will be clean. …
- Leviticus 22:8 He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, which would make him unclean. I am the LORD.
Caused by Touching the Dead
- Numbers 19:11–22 Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days. …
- Numbers 31:19–20 All of you who have killed a person or touched the dead are to remain outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and the seventh day you are to purify both yourselves and your captives. …
Causes of, Improperly Enlarged by Tradition
- Mark 7:2 and they saw some of His disciples eating with hands that were defiled— that is, unwashed.
- Matthew 15:20 These are what defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him.”
Ceremonial Caused by Being Alone with a Dead Body
- Numbers 19:14 This is the law when a person dies in a tent: Everyone who enters the tent and everyone already in the tent will be unclean for seven days,
Ceremonial Caused by Burning the Red Heifer
- Numbers 19:8 The one who burned the heifer must also wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he too will be ceremonially unclean until evening.
Ceremonial Caused by Child Bearing
- Leviticus 12:2 “Say to the Israelites, ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be unclean for seven days, as she is during the days of her menstruation.
Ceremonial Caused by Eating Things That Died
- Leviticus 17:15 And any person, whether native or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening; then he will be clean.
Ceremonial Caused by Eating Unclean Things
- Leviticus 11:8 You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.
- Acts 10:11 He saw heaven open and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
- Acts 10:14 “No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
Ceremonial Caused by Gathering the Ashes of the Red Heifer
- Numbers 19:10 The man who has gathered up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he will be ceremonially unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner residing among them.
Ceremonial Caused by Going Into a Leprous House
- Leviticus 14:46 Anyone who enters the house during any of the days that it is closed up will be unclean until evening.
Ceremonial Caused by Having a Leprosy
- Leviticus 13:3 The priest is to examine the infection on his skin, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.
- Leviticus 13:11 it is a chronic skin disease and the priest must pronounce him unclean. He need not isolate him, for he is unclean.
- Numbers 5:2–3 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body. …
Ceremonial Caused by Having an Issue
- Leviticus 15:2 “Say to the Israelites, ‘When any man has a bodily discharge, the discharge is unclean.
- Numbers 5:2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
Ceremonial Caused by Mourning for the Dead
- Leviticus 21:1–3 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them that a priest is not to defile himself for a dead person among his people, …
Ceremonial Caused by Sacrificing the Red Heifer
- Numbers 19:7 Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may enter the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean until evening.
Ceremonial Caused by Touching a Dead Beast
- Leviticus 5:2 Or if a person touches anything unclean— whether the carcass of any unclean wild animal or livestock or crawling creature— even if he is unaware of it, he is unclean and guilty.
- Leviticus 11:24–28 These creatures will make you unclean. Whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until evening, …
Ceremonial Caused by Touching a Dead Body or a Bone
- Numbers 9:6–7 But there were some men who were unclean due to a dead body, so they could not observe the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and Aaron that same day …
- Numbers 19:11 Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days.
- Numbers 19:16 Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
Ceremonial Caused by Touching a Grave
- Numbers 19:16 Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
Ceremonial Caused by Touching an Unclean Person
- Numbers 19:22 Anything the unclean person touches will become unclean, and anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.”
Ceremonial Caused by Touching Anything Defiled by an Issue
- Leviticus 15:5–11 Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening. …
Ceremonial, Abolished Under the Gospel
- Acts 10:15 The voice spoke to him a second time: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
- Romans 14:14 I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
- Colossians 2:20–22 If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations: …
Cleansed by Legal offerings
- Numbers 19:18–19 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent, all the furnishings, and the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle the one who touched a bone, a grave, or a person …
- Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,
Contact with Sinners Falsely Supposed to Cause
- John 18:28 Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
Egyptian Usage, Concerning
- Genesis 43:32 They separately served Joseph, his brothers, and the Egyptians. They ate separately because the Egyptians would not eat with the Hebrews, since that was detestable to them.
Forbidden to the Jews
- Leviticus 11:44–45 For I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any creature that crawls along the ground. …
Laws Relating To
- Leviticus 7:18–21 If any of the meat from his peace offering is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted. It will not be credited to the one who presented it; it shall be an abomination, and the one who eats of it shall bear his iniquity. …
- Leviticus 11:43 Do not defile yourselves by any crawling creature; do not become unclean or defiled by them.
- Leviticus 22:2–7 “Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings that the Israelites have consecrated to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name. I am the LORD. …
Moral, Caused by Blood Shedding
- Isaiah 59:3 For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.
Moral, Caused by Following the Sins of the Heathen
- Leviticus 18:24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
Moral, Caused by Giving Children to Molech
- Leviticus 20:3 And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people, because by giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name.
Moral, Caused by Making and Serving Idols
- Ezekiel 20:17–18 Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or bring them to an end in the wilderness. …
- Ezekiel 22:3–4 and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘O city who brings her own doom by shedding blood within her walls and making idols to defile herself, …
- Ezekiel 23:7 She offered sexual favors to all the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of those for whom she lusted.
Moral, Caused by Seeking After Wizards
- Leviticus 19:31 You must not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out, or you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
Moral, Punished
- Leviticus 18:24–25 Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves. …
- Leviticus 18:28–29 So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you. …
Neglecting Purification From, Punished by Cutting off
- Numbers 19:13 Anyone who touches a human corpse and fails to purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the LORD. That person must be cut off from Israel. He remains unclean, because the water of purification has not been sprinkled on him, and …
- Numbers 19:20 But if a person who is unclean does not purify himself, he will be cut off from the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.
Priests: Not to Eat Holy Things While Under
- Leviticus 22:2 “Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings that the Israelites have consecrated to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name. I am the LORD.
Priests: Punished for Eating of the Holy Things While Under
- Leviticus 22:3 Tell them that for the generations to come, if any of their descendants in a state of uncleanness approaches the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the LORD, that person must be cut off from My presence. I am the LORD.
Priests: Specially Required to Avoid
- Leviticus 21:1–6 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them that a priest is not to defile himself for a dead person among his people, …
- Leviticus 21:11–12 He must not go near any dead body; he must not defile himself, even for his father or mother. …
Priests: To Decide in all Cases of
- Leviticus 10:10 You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the clean and the unclean,
- Leviticus 13:3 The priest is to examine the infection on his skin, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.
Things Liable to Ceremonial: Furniture
- Leviticus 15:9–10 Any saddle on which the man with the discharge rides will be unclean. …
- Numbers 19:14–15 This is the law when a person dies in a tent: Everyone who enters the tent and everyone already in the tent will be unclean for seven days, …
Things Liable to Ceremonial: Garments
- Leviticus 13:59 This is the law concerning a mildew contamination in wool or linen fabric, weave, or knit, or any leather article, for pronouncing it clean or unclean.”
Things Liable to Ceremonial: Houses
- Leviticus 14:44 the priest must come and inspect it. If the mildew has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew; the house is unclean.
Things Liable to Ceremonial: The Land
- Leviticus 18:25 Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.
- Deuteronomy 21:23 you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Things Liable to Ceremonial: The Person
- Leviticus 5:3 Or if he touches human uncleanness— anything by which one becomes unclean— even if he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, he is guilty.
Things Liable to Ceremonial: The Sanctuary
- Leviticus 20:3 And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people, because by giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name.
- Zephaniah 3:4 Her prophets are reckless, faithless men. Her priests profane the sanctuary; they do violence to the law.
Those Under, Removed from the Camp
- Numbers 5:3–4 You must send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.” …
- Deuteronomy 23:14 For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.
Related topics
Defilement of PriestsDefilement of SinDefilement of Unholy DoctrinesSanitationPurifications or Baptisms of Individuals Who Were Ceremonially UncleanPurification for Women
Topics: Nave’s Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook (1897), public domain, via the Berean Bible topical index.