King James Bible Dictionary

Creatures designated as such
Ezekiel 3:11; Ezekiel 5:14
Uncleanness

UNCLE'AN, adjective

1. Not clean; foul; dirty; filthy.

2. In the Jewish law, ceremonially impure; not cleansed by ritual practices. Numbers 19:7. Leviticus 11:4. Romans 14:14.

3. Foul with sin. Matthew 10:1.

That holy place where no unclean thing shall enter.

4. Not in covenant with God. 1 Corinthians 7:14.

5. Lewd; unchaste.

Adultery of the heart, consisting of inordinate and unclean affections.

No unclean person - hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Ephesians 5:5.

These were things strangled, or dead of themselves or through beasts or birds of prey; whatever beast did not both part the hoof and chew the cud; and certain other smaller animals rated as "creeping things;" certain classes of birds mentioned in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 twenty or twenty-one in all; whatever in the waters had not both fins and scales whatever winged insect had not besides four legs the two hindlegs for leaping; Besides things offered in sacrifice to idols; and ail blood or whatever contained it (save perhaps the blood of fish, as would appear from that only of beast and bird being forbidden,) (Leviticus 7:26) and therefore flesh cut from the live animal; as also all fat, at any rate that disposed in masses among the intestines, and probably wherever discernible end separable among the flesh. (Leviticus 3:14-17; 7:23) The eating of blood was prohibited even to "the stranger that sojourneth among you." (Leviticus 17:10; 12:14) As regards blood, the prohibition indeed dates from the declaration to Noah against "flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof" in (Genesis 9:4) which was perhaps by Moses as still binding upon all Noah's descendants. It is noteworthy that the practical effect of the rule laid down is to exclude all the carnivora among quadrupeds, and, so far as we can interpret the nomenclature the raptores among birds. They were probably excluded as being not averse to human carcasses, and in most eastern countries acting as the servitors of the battle-field and the gibbet. Among fish those which were allowed contain unquestionably the most wholesome varieties, save that they exclude the oyster. Practically the law left among the allowed Meats an ample variety. As Orientals have minds sensitive to teaching by types, there can be little doubt that such cere menial distinctions not only tended to keep Jew and Gentile apart (and so prevented the Jews from becoming contaminated with the idolatry of the Gentiles), but were a perpetual reminder to the former that he and the latter were not on one level before God. Hence, when that ceremony was changed we find that this was the very symbol selected to instruct St. Peter in the truth that God was not a "respecter of persons." It remains to mention the sanitary aspect of the case. Swine are said to peculiarly liable to disease in their own bodies. This probably means that they are more easily led than other creatures to the foul feeding which produces it. As regards the animals allowed for food, comparing them with those forbidden, there can be no doubt on which side the balance of wholesomeness lies.

UNCLE'ANABLE, adjective That cannot be cleansed.

UNCLEANLINESS, noun unclen'liness. Want of cleanliness; filthiness.

UNCLEANLY, adjective unclen'ly.

1. Foul; filthy; dirty.

2. Indecent; unchaste; obscene.

It is a pity that these harmonious writers have indulged any thing uncleanly or impure to defile their paper.

General references
Leviticus 5:2-3; Leviticus 7:20-21; Leviticus 17:15; Leviticus 21:1-15; Leviticus 22:2-8; Numbers 5:2-3; Numbers 9:6-11; Numbers 4:19; Numbers 31:19; Deuteronomy 23:10-11
Ablution; Defilement; Purification; Sanitation

The distinctive idea attached to ceremonial uncleanness among the Hebrews was that it cut a person off for the time from social privileges, and left his citizenship among God's people for the while in abeyance. There is an intense reality in the fact of the divine law taking hold of a man by the ordinary infirmities of flesh, and setting its stamp, as it were, in the lowest clay of which he is moulded. The sacredness attached to the human body is parallel to that which invested the ark of the covenant itself. It is as though Jehovah thereby would teach men that the "very hairs of their head were all numbered" before him and that "in his book were all their members written." Thus was inculcated so to speak a bodily holiness. Nor were the Isr'lites to be only "separated from other people," but they were to be "holy to God," (Leviticus 20:24,26) "a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." The importance to physical well-being of the injunctions which required frequent ablution, under whatever special pretexts, can be but feebly appreciated in our cooler and damper climate. Uncleanness, as referred to men, may be arranged in three degrees:

1. That which defiled merely "until even." and was removed by bathing and washing the clothes at the end of it; such were all contacts with dead animals.
2. That graver sort which defiled for seven days, and was removed by the use of the "water of separation;" such were all defilements connected with the human corpse.
3. Uncleanness from the morbid perpetual or menstrual state, lasting as long as that morbid state lasted; and in the case of leprosy lasting often for life. As the human person was itself the seat of a covenant token, so male and female had each their ceremonial obligations in proportion to their sexual differences. 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 pollute than that with a corpse dead by the course of nature. (Numbers 19:11-18) This shows that the source of pollution lay in the mere fact of death. The duration of defilement caused by the birth of a female infant being double that due to a male, extending respectively to eighty and forty days in All, (Leviticus 12:2-5) may perhaps represent the woman's heavier share in the first sin and first curse. (Genesis 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:14) Among 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 uncleanness in the second degree, themselves became a source of defilement to all who were clean, even as of purification to the unclean, and so the water. Somewhat similarly the scapegoat, who bore away the sins of the people, defiled him who led him into the wilderness, and the bringing forth aid 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. Besides the water of purification made as afore said, men and women, in their "issues," were, after seven days, reckoned from the cessation of the disorder, to bring two turtle-doves or young pigeons to be killed by the priests. All these kinds of uncleanness disqualified for holy functions: as the layman so affected might not approach the congregation and the sanctuary, so any priest who incurred defilement must abstain from holy things. (Leviticus 22:2-8) [LEPER, LEPROSY] The religion of the persians shows a singularly close correspondence with the Levitical code.

UNCLE'ANNESS, noun

1. Foulness; dirtiness; filthiness.

Be not troublesome to thyself or to others by uncleanness

2. Want of ritual or ceremonial purity. Leviticus 15:3.

3. Moral impurity; defilement by sin; sinfulness.

I will save you from all your uncleanness Ezekiel 36:17.

4. Lewdness; incontinence. Colossians 3:5. 2 Peter 2:10.

UNCLEANSED, adjective unclenz'ed. Not cleansed; not purified.