UNCLEAN, UNCLEANNESS un klen'nes), (Heb. taw- may' , to be foul; rild-daw', rejection, Lev. XX :2I ; Ezra ix:1i; er-vaw', nudity, Deut. xxiii:14; Zech. xiii:I; kaw-dashe', consecrated, Job xxxvi-14; reh', accidental disqualification, Deut. xxiii:Io; Gr. dtcdeapros, ak-tah'ar-tos ; p.Larri.t6s, mee-as-mos', contamination).
(1) Animals. (1) All animals strangled, or dead of themselves, or through beasts or birds of prey ; (2) whatever beast did not both part the hoof and chew the cud, and certain other smaller animals "creeping things ;" (3) birds mentioned in Lev. xi and Deut. xiv ; (4) whatever in the waters had not both fins and scales ; (5) what ever winged insect had not besides four legs the two hind legs for leaping; (6) things offered in sacrifice to idols ; (7) all blood or whatever con tained it (save perhaps the blood of fish, as would appear from that only of beast and bird being forbidden (Lev. vii :26), and therefore flesh cut from the live animal ; (8) as also all fat in masses among the intestines, and probably wher ever discernible and separable among the flesh,— were called unclean (Lev. iii :14-17; vii :21) ; (9) the eating of blood was prohibited even to "the stranger that sojourneth among you" (Lev. io, 12, [3, 14) ; ( to) as regards blood, the prohi bition dates from the declaration to Noah against "flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof" (Gen. ix :4), which was perhaps re garded by Moses as still binding upon all Noah's descendants.
(2) Of Man. Uncleanness, as referred to man, may be arranged in three degrees ; (a) that which defiled "until even," and was removed by bath ing and washing the clothes at the 'end of it— such were all contacts with dead animals ; (b) that graver sort which defiled for seven days, and was removed by the use of the "water of separa tion"—such were all defilements connected with the human corpse ; (c) uncleanness from the morbid, puerperal, or menstrual state, lasting as long as that morbid state lasted; and in the case of leprosy lasting often for life (Lev. chapters xiii, xiv, xv :5-24; Num. v :2). (I) As the human per son was itself the seat of a covenant token, so male and female had each their ceremonial obli gations in proportion to their sexual differences.
(2) There is an emphatic reminder of human weakness in the fact of birth and death—man's passage alike into and out of his mortal state— being marked with a stated pollution. The corpse bequeathed a defilement of seven days to all who handled it, to the "tent" or chamber of death, and to sundry things within it. Nay, contact with one slain in the field of battle, or with even a human bone or grave, was no less effectual to pol lute, than that with a corpse dead by the course of nature (Num. xix ; xxxi :19). This shows that the source of pollution lay in the mere fact of death. (3) The duration of defilement caused by the birth of a female infant, being dou ble that due to a male, extending respectively to eighty and forty days in all (Lev. xii :2-5), may perhaps represent the woman's heavier share in the first sin and first curse (Gen. iii :16; r Tim. ii :14). (4) Amongst causes of defilement should be noticed the fact that the ashes of the red heifer, burnt whole, which were mixed with water, and became the standing resource for purifying un cleanness in the second degree, themselves be came a source of defilement to all who were clean, even as of purification to the unclean, and so the water. (5) Somewhat similarly the scapegoat, who bore away the sins of the people, defiled him who led him into the wilderness, and the bringing forth and burning the sacrifice on the Great Day of Atonement had a similar power. This lightest form of uncleanness was expiated by bathing the body and washing the clothes. (6) Besides the water of purification made as aforesaid, men and women, in their "issues," were, after seven days, reckoned from the cessation of the disorder, to bring two turtledoves or young pigeons to be killed by the priests. (7) All these kinds of un cleanness disqualified for holy functions: as the layman so affected might not approach the con gregation and the sanctuary, so any priest who in curred defilement must abstain from holy things (Lev. xxii :2-8).