5:1-4 · The Israelite camp is sanctified by the presence of the Lord’s sanctuary in its midst. Therefore, the community within the camp is to be ritually and ethically pure. Males or females with severe physical ritual impurities are required to stay outside the camp so that they will not defile its sphere of holiness that surrounds the sanctuary (5:1–4). This is no ordinary public health quarantine. Leviticus 13:46 already commanded that individuals afflicted by skin disease are to dwell apart. But exclusion of persons contaminated by genital discharges and corpses (5:2) goes beyond the rules in Leviticus 15 and Numbers 19 because life in the sacred war camp demands a standard that is higher than usual.

5:5-10 · Numbers 5:5–10 continues the theme of solving problems that males or female…