The Bible

The Bible › Leviticus

Leviticus 15

1Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron: 2“Tell the sons of Israel: When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. 3This is his uncleanness concerning his discharge: whether his body lets the discharge flow or his body blocks the discharge, this is his uncleanness. 4Every bed on which the man with the discharge lies becomes unclean, and every article on which he sits becomes unclean. 5Anyone who touches his bed must wash their clothes and bathe in water and will be unclean until evening. 6Anyone who sits on an article on which the man with the discharge sits must wash their clothes and bathe in water and will be unclean until evening. 7Anyone who touches the body of the man with the discharge must wash their clothes and bathe in water and will be unclean until evening. 8If the man with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, that person must wash their clothes and bathe in water and will be unclean until evening. 9Anything on which the man with the discharge rides becomes unclean. 10Anyone who touches anything that was under him will be unclean until evening. Anyone who carries those things must wash their clothes and bathe in water and will be unclean until evening. 11Anyone whom the man with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water must wash their clothes and bathe in water and will be unclean until evening. 12A clay vessel that the man with the discharge touches must be broken, and every wooden article must be rinsed with water.

13“When the man with the discharge becomes clean from his discharge, he must count seven days for his purification, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in fresh water, and he will be clean. 14On the eighth day he must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, come before Yahweh to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and give them to the priest. 15The priest must prepare them, one as a purification offering and the other as a burnt offering. The priest will make atonement for him before Yahweh because of his discharge.

16“When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body in water and will be unclean until evening. 17Any garment or leather on which there is semen must be washed with water and will be unclean until evening. 18If a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both must bathe in water and will be unclean until evening.

19“When a woman has a discharge, and her discharge from her body is blood, she will be in her menstrual impurity for seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. 20Everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity becomes unclean, and everything on which she sits becomes unclean. 21Anyone who touches her bed must wash their clothes and bathe in water and will be unclean until evening. 22Anyone who touches any article on which she sits must wash their clothes and bathe in water and will be unclean until evening. 23If something is on the bed or on the article on which she sits, whoever touches it will be unclean until evening. 24If a man lies with her and her menstrual impurity comes on him, he will be unclean for seven days, and every bed on which he lies becomes unclean.

25“When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days outside the time of her menstrual impurity, or when it runs beyond her menstrual impurity, she will be unclean throughout the days of her unclean discharge, as during the days of her menstrual impurity. 26Every bed on which she lies throughout the days of her discharge will be like her bed during her menstrual impurity, and every article on which she sits will be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her menstrual impurity. 27Anyone who touches these things becomes unclean and must wash their clothes and bathe in water and will be unclean until evening. 28If she becomes clean from her discharge, she must count seven days; afterward she will be clean. 29On the eighth day she must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 30The priest must prepare one as a purification offering and the other as a burnt offering. The priest will make atonement for her before Yahweh because of her unclean discharge.

31“You must keep the sons of Israel separate from their uncleanness, so that they do not die in their uncleanness by defiling my dwelling that is among them.”

32This is the instruction for the man with a discharge and for a man who has an emission of semen that makes him unclean, 33for a woman during her menstrual impurity, for anyone with a discharge, male or female, and for a man who lies with an unclean woman.

Translation notes 6

15:2–3 — Discharge; body. “Body,” literally “flesh,” here euphemistically refers to the genital area. The condition is distinguished from the emission of semen in verse 16; the text does not identify a securely established modern disease. Both flowing and blocked discharge incur uncleanness. The compared Samaritan and ancient Greek wording is longer, including ‘all the days’ language about the discharge or blockage; an early Hebrew fragment preserves part of that duration wording, though much of its surrounding text is restored. The shorter Hebrew base is retained provisionally, while accidental loss of wording remains a substantial alternative.

15:4–12 — Contact and objects. Touching, sitting, carrying, and being spat on receive specified instructions. Washing clothes, bathing, and remaining unclean until evening are repeated requirements, not interchangeable alternatives. The hands in verse 11 belong to the man with the discharge; the draft makes that relationship explicit. Clay vessels are broken, while wooden articles are rinsed.

15:13–18 — Recovery; semen. After the discharge ends, seven days and an eighth-day pair of offerings are required. Ordinary emission of semen and intercourse are treated separately: bathing and uncleanness until evening are stated, without the same seven-day period or bird offerings. Both partners bathe after intercourse. The text does not call every occurrence of ritual uncleanness a moral transgression.

15:19–24 — Menstrual impurity; uncertain pronoun. The seven-day period applies to the menstruating woman; touching her brings uncleanness until evening, while intercourse in verse 24 brings seven days to the man. In verse 23 Hebrew has an unidentified “it” or “he” on the bed or seat. The draft takes it as an object resting there and supplies “something.” Another interpretation takes the bed or seat itself as the object touched. The wording is disputed, and no additional washing requirement is supplied in this verse.

15:25–30 — Prolonged bleeding. The text distinguishes bleeding outside the usual period or continuing beyond it from the preceding menstrual case. It specifies a further count of seven days after the discharge ends and offerings on the eighth day. Male and female extended discharges receive parallel purification procedures without making all their details identical.

15:31–33 — Dwelling among them. The stated concern is defiling Yahweh's dwelling and the danger associated with it. The text's rationale is not replaced with a modern theory of contagion, nutrition, or moral blame for ordinary bodily processes. The closing summary explicitly includes male and female cases.