When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing. If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp and stay outside. When evening approaches, he must wash with water, and when the sun sets he may return to the camp. You must have a place outside the camp to go and relieve yourself. And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement. For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.
When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he will be unclean until evening.
Significance
Leviticus 15:16 prescribes that a man with a seminal emission (שִׁכְבַת זֶרַע, shkhivat zera') must bathe and remain unclean until evening. Deuteronomy 23:9-14 extends this purity requirement to the military camp: a man with a nocturnal emission must go "outside the camp" and may not return until he has bathed at evening. The rationale in Deuteronomy 23:14 is that "the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp," making the war camp a sacred space analogous to the tabernacle camp where the same Levitical purity rules apply. The connection demonstrates that God's presence sanctifies any space where He dwells — whether the wilderness encampment or the battlefield — demanding the same bodily purity standards.
