If an Israelite touched a dead body, or was just in the same tent as a dead body, then the living person was unclean for seven days, but the Law of Moses then prescribed,

“The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean” (Numbers 19.19).

The Law of Moses taught many things about clean and unclean, and that while unclean an Israelite could not approach God.

The New Testament teaches the same thing, but in the Spirit,

“I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean” (Romans 14.14).

“Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you'” (2 Corinthians 6.17).

“For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Ephesians 5.5).

Related Articles

• Numbers 19.14, 15 – Everything unclean for seven days after contact with a dead body (sevensinthebible.com)
• Numbers 19.11, 12 – Seven days for purification after touching a dead body (sevensinthebible.com)
• Numbers 19.16 – Unclean seven days after touching the dead in an open field (sevensinthebible.com)
• Numbers 6.9 – Nazirite re-consecrated with a seventh-day shaving (sevensinthebible.com)