Our sins affect other people, including our children and grandchildren or as Scripture says, “to the third and fourth generation.” We aren’t punished for our parent’s sins, but we have been affected by them. We suffer when other people sin.
The ancient House of Israel were so far gone, so utterly unrepentant that God’s only recourse was to send 90% of them to the grave and the other 10% into exile. The exile will end only when Messiah Yeshua returns to the earth.
Life starts with contamination. It starts out dirty. Childbirth is messy. It’s not sinful; it’s just a fact of life.
The general Bible term for infections of skin and surfaces is “leprosy,” but it covers a host of conditions. It’s also a good parable for “rot” in our character — if the lesson isn’t taken too far.
The Torah reading תזריע Tazria (“she will conceive,” Leviticus 12–13) is concerned about what is physically dirty vs. clean, but the LORD’s lesson for us is more than skin-deep.