tame · unclean

What it means

tame (טָמֵא) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “unclean”.

In a state that keeps a person from coming near the sanctuary or touching what is holy. It does not mean "dirty" or "sinful": many causes of uncleanness are natural (childbirth, a disease, touching a dead body) and pass with time and washing. Jesus taught that what really makes a person unclean comes from the heart (Mark 7:18-23).

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. Unclean under the law, kept from holy things; not "dirty".
2. Stained by sin: "unclean lips".

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Unclean: in a state that, according to the law, keeps one from coming near the sanctuary or touching what is holy; also, of animals, not fit to eat. It is the adjective of טָמֵא, “be unclean” (H2930), and the opposite of טָהוֹר, “clean” (H2889). BDB: foul, contaminated, in a ceremonial or moral sense.

• “To separate… the unclean from the clean” Leviticus 10:10
• Unclean animals Leviticus 11:4Deuteronomy 14:10
• What makes one unclean: a dead body, a sore Leviticus 5:2Numbers 19:13
• “Unclean, unclean!”: the cry of the leper Leviticus 13:45
• “A man of unclean lips” Isaiah 6:5Haggai 2:13

Historical and cultural background

The laws give the causes of uncleanness: eating or touching certain animals (Leviticus 11), a sore on the skin (Leviticus 13), touching a dead person (Numbers 19:13). The leper had to “cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’” (Leviticus 13:45).

How we translate it

Always “unclean” (88 times). This edition's glossary sets טָמֵא / טָהוֹר = “unclean / clean” with no deviations, so that the pair is recognized throughout the law; the verb is “become unclean” (“he has become unclean and guilty”, Leviticus 5:2).

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Leviticus×47
• Numbers×11
• Deuteronomy×8
• Joshua×1
• Judges×1
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Job×1
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×6
• Jeremiah×1
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×5
• Hosea×1
• Amos×1
• Haggai×2

• Leviticus 5:2

  Or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether the carcass of an unclean animal, or the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of an unclean swarming thing, and it is hidden from him, he has become unclean and guilty.

• Leviticus 7:19

  The flesh that touches anything unclean shall not be eaten; it shall be burned with fire. As for the other flesh, everyone who is clean may eat flesh.

• Leviticus 7:21

  And when a person touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness or an unclean beast or any unclean detestable thing, and eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace that belongs to YHWH, that person shall be cut off from his people.”

• Leviticus 10:10

  and to separate the holy from the common, and the unclean from the clean,

• Leviticus 11:4

  But these you shall not eat, among those that chew the cud or among those that divide the hoof: the camel, for it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:5

  And the hyrax, for it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:6

  And the hare, for it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:7

  And the pig, for it divides the hoof and is split with a cleft in the hoof, but it does not chew the cud; it shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:8

  Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:26

  Every beast that divides the hoof but is not split with a cleft, and does not chew the cud, they shall be unclean for you; whoever touches them will be unclean.

• Leviticus 11:27

  And all that walk on their paws, among all the animals that walk on all fours, they shall be unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 11:28

  And whoever carries their carcasses shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening; they shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:29

  And these shall be unclean for you among the swarming things that swarm on the earth: the weasel, the mouse, and the lizard according to its kind,

• Leviticus 11:31

  These are unclean for you among all the swarming things; whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 11:35

  And anything on which any of their carcasses falls will be unclean; an oven or a stove shall be broken down; they are unclean, and they shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:38

  But if water is put on the seed and any of their carcasses falls on it, it shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:47

  to separate the unclean from the clean, and the animal that may be eaten from the animal that may not be eaten.

• Leviticus 13:11

  it is a chronic leprosy in the skin of his body, and the priest shall declare him unclean; he shall not isolate him, for he is unclean.

• Leviticus 13:15

  The priest shall examine the raw flesh and declare him unclean; the raw flesh is unclean; it is leprosy.

• Leviticus 13:36

  the priest shall examine him, and if the ringworm has spread in the skin, the priest need not look for the yellowish hair; he is unclean.

• Leviticus 13:44

  he is a leprous man; he is unclean; the priest shall surely declare him unclean; his sore is on his head.

• Leviticus 13:45

  And the leper who has the sore —his garments shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall hang loose, and he shall cover himself up to the mustache and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’

• Leviticus 13:46

  All the days that the sore is on him he shall be unclean; he is unclean; he shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

• Leviticus 13:51

  He shall examine the mark on the seventh day; if the mark has spread in the garment or in the woven material or in the knitted material or in the skin, for whatever the skin is made for use, the mark is a malignant leprosy; it is unclean.

• Leviticus 13:55

  The priest shall examine the mark after it has been washed, and if the mark has not changed its appearance —even though the mark has not spread— it is unclean; you shall burn it with fire; it is a corrosion, whether on its back or on its front.

• Leviticus 14:40

  the priest shall command that they pull out the stones in which the mark is and throw them to outside the city, to an unclean place.

• Leviticus 14:41

  And the house he shall have scraped inside all around, and they shall pour out the clay that they scrape off to outside the city, to an unclean place.

• Leviticus 14:44

  the priest shall come and examine it, and if the mark has spread in the house, it is a malignant leprosy in the house; it is unclean.

• Leviticus 14:45

  He shall tear down the house, its stones and its timbers and all the clay of the house, and carry them out to outside the city, to an unclean place.

• Leviticus 14:57

  to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the instruction for leprosy.”

• Leviticus 15:2

  “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean.

• Leviticus 15:25

  And when a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days not at the time of her menstruation, or when she has a discharge beyond her menstruation, all the days of the discharge of her uncleanness she shall be as in the days of her menstruation: she is unclean.

• Leviticus 15:26

  Every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her like the bed of her menstruation; and every object on which she sits shall be unclean, like the uncleanness of her menstruation.

• Leviticus 15:33

  and for the woman who is ill with her menstruation, and for the one who has his discharge, whether male or female, and for a man who lies with an unclean woman.

• Leviticus 20:25

  So you shall separate between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.

• Leviticus 22:4

  No man of the offspring of Aaron who is leprous or has a discharge may eat of the holy things until he is clean. Whoever touches anything unclean by a dead person, or a man from whom an emission of semen goes out,

• Leviticus 27:11

  And if it is any unclean beast of which they may not present an offering to YHWH, he shall set the beast before the priest,

• Leviticus 27:27

  And if it is among the unclean beasts, he shall ransom it according to its valuation and add a fifth of it to it; and if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold according to its valuation.

• Numbers 5:2

  “Command the sons of Israel to send out of the camp everyone with leprosy, and everyone with a discharge, and everyone who is unclean through a corpse.

• Numbers 9:6

  But there were men who were unclean through a dead human being, and they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

And 48 more times.