Expulsion of the Impure

(Book of Number 5:1 - 5:4)

Jehovah instructed Moses, "Order the Israelites to expel from camp anyone who is afflicted with tzaraath, has a ritually impure bodily discharge, or who is impure because of contact with a dead body. Expel them whether they are male or female so that they may not defile the camp where I dwell among them."

And so the Israelites did as Jehovah had commanded them and expelled such people from their camp.

Notes:
1.  Tsaraath, which was covered quite extensively in Leviticus, is a catch-all term for any kind of skin disease that renders a person ritually impure.  It is often translated as "leprosy," but certainly includes many other afflictions in addition to the disease called leprosy that was prevalent in ancient times (and which was probably different from modern leprosy or Hansen's disease).  In fact, tsaraath can affect clothes or the walls of buildings in the form of mold or mildew.

2.  Jehovah demands that these impure folks be kicked out of the Israelite camp not, it seems, because they might infect other Israelites but because he doesn't want to be around them.  To what extent Jehovah actually lives among the Israelites is an open question.  If he physically appears at all it would be in the Inner Sanctum of the Tabernacle.  If he did, why should he worry about impure people living in other parts of the camp, for no one but a priest would be caught dead in the Inner Sanctum?  (Correction: anyone else but a priest who entered the Inner Sanctum would very quickly become dead!)  Does the ritual impurity of a human somehow have an effect upon Jehovah the god?  Is this effect physical or otherwise?  It only makes sense if a germaphobic Jehovah is afraid of catching something.  Does Jehovah, if he be a physical being, need to protect himself from too close a contact with earth people so as to avoid exposure to pathogens?

3.  It would be interesting to know how many were expelled from camp for this reason.  (Here, Numbers fails to give us the number.)  Did these people set up a separate camp and follow the Israelites in their travels?  Were they able to rejoin the main camp when they became well or pure again?