For a guiding rule as to this answer, the priests may have had in mind what the Mosaic law says in Leviticus 7:19, 20: “The flesh that may touch anything unclean is not to be eaten. It is to be burned with fire. As for the flesh, everybody clean may eat the flesh. And the soul who eats the flesh of the communion sacrifice, which is for Jehovah, while his uncleanness is upon him, that soul must be cut off from his people.” According to this, an Israelite who was unclean for any reason (Leviticus 7:21) should not think that because he comes in touch with “holy flesh” by eating it he is thereby cleansed, that what he has eaten has imparted holiness to him. Wrong reasoning according to the Law!

6. What question did Haggai next propose, and with what answer?

⁶ The prophet Haggai did not say that the priests had reasoned wrong. So now he proposed a question that called for an opposite answer. “And Haggai went on to say: ‘If someone unclean by a deceased soul touches any of these things, will it become unclean?’ In turn the priests answered and said: ‘It will become unclean.’”​—Haggai 2:13.

7. The right answer of the priests proved that they knew what law about cleansing someone defiled by a dead body?

⁷ This correct answer of the priests proved that they knew Jehovah’s law that was stated in connection with the “water for cleansing.” This was water with which the ashes of the sacrificed red cow had been mingled and which was sprinkled upon persons defiled by contact with dead bodies. This law said: “Anyone touching the corpse of any human soul must also be unclean seven days. . . . Everyone touching a corpse, the soul of whatever man may die, and who will not purify himself, has defiled Jehovah’s tabernacle, and that soul must be cut off from Israel. Because the water for cleansing has not been sprinkled upon him, he continues unclean. His uncleanness is still upon him. And it must serve as a statute to time indefinite for them, that the one spattering the water for cleansing should wash his garments, also the one touching the water for cleansing. He will be unclean until the evening. And anything the unclean one may touch will be unclean, and the soul who touches it will be unclean until the evening.”​—Numbers 19:2-5, 11-13, 21, 22; Hebrews 9:13.

8. What did this illustrate with regard to uncleanness, and how did this apply with regard to one’s attitude toward the erection of Jehovah’s temple?

⁸ This illustrates how infectious an uncleanness can be​—not only physically, but also spiritually. A person who is bearing something holy may not be able to pass on holiness to another person automatically or easily, without effort. But an unclean, contaminated person can easily infect another person by mere association and contact with him.

12. So, how were the sacrifices that they presented at Jehovah’s altar affected, and in view of that could he bless them?

¹² It was as in the case of the Israelite who became unclean by touching a dead body: everything that he touched before he was cleansed by being sprinkled with the water containing ashes of the sacrificed red heifer was made unclean. Being unclean in Jehovah’s sight because of their neglect toward His house of worship, the restored nation of Israel contaminated the sacrifices that they presented to Jehovah on their temporary altar at Jerusalem. Under such circumstances, could Jehovah bless them, not just spiritually but also materially? Consistently, No.