Quotes about Defilement

So Haggai asked, “If one who is defiled by contact with a corpse touches any of these, does it become defiled?” “Yes, it becomes defiled,” the priests answered.

Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.

He must not go near any dead body; he must not defile himself, even for his father or mother.

They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

If any of them falls into a clay pot, everything in it will be unclean; you must break the pot.

Whoever eats from the carcass must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening, and anyone who picks up the carcass must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening.

It must be torn down with its stones, its timbers, and all its plaster, and taken outside the city to an unclean place.

And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”

Paul is not simply invoking a "cultic metaphor" alongside a "law court" metaphor, on the one hand, and a "slave market" metaphor, on the other. He is thinking of the restoration of true cult, true worship: the one God cleansing people from defilement so that the true meeting, the heart of the covenant, may take place at last.

Do not defile yourselves by any crawling creature; do not become unclean or defiled by them.

Anyone who touches these things will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening.

“Son of man, when the people of Israel lived in their land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. Their behavior before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman’s impurity.