Leviticus 11:27-28

And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you: whoso toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the even.

Whoso toucheth their carcass shall be unclean until the even. The continued enjoyment of their national privileges by the Israelites was contingent upon their adherence to the prescriptions of the law. Ceremonial defilement entailed, to a certain extent, the less of those privileges; but when the impurity had been removed, the individual was restored, on condition of intimating his restoration by submitting to the rite of an entire ablution.

Defilement might be contracted in various ways. Even an involuntary or accidental contact with the carcass of an unclean animal necessitated ecclesiastical exclusion for a time; and in the expiry of that specified term evidence had to be produced that the pollution was removed, by the purification of the contaminated clothes, ere the wearer was reinstated in his privileged condition.