Leviticus 7:20-21

7:20 The person who eats meat from the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord while his uncleanness persists ¹  will be cut off from his people. ²  7:21 When a person touches anything unclean (whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or an unclean detestable creature) ³  and eats some of the meat of the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord, that person will be cut off from his people.’” ⁴ 

Numbers 19:13

19:13 Anyone who touches the corpse of any dead person and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. And that person must be cut off from Israel, ⁵  because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

¹ tn Heb “and his unclean condition is on him.”

² sn The exact meaning of this penalty clause is not certain. It could mean that he will be executed, whether by God or by man, he will be excommunicated from sanctuary worship and/or community benefits (cf. TEV, CEV), or his line will be terminated by God (i.e., extirpation), etc. See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 100; J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:457-60; and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 241-42 for further discussion.

³ sn For these categories of unclean animals see Lev 11.

⁴ sn For the interpretation of this last clause see the note on Lev 7:20.

⁵ sn It is in passages like this that the view that being “cut off” meant the death penalty is the hardest to support. Would the Law prescribe death for someone who touches a corpse and fails to follow the ritual? Besides, the statement in this section that his uncleanness remains with him suggests that he still lives on.