1
The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
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OLD TESTAMENT
All chapters Leviticus 15
The Holy Bible · EnglishOpen an explanation beneath verses with notes. Your notes and highlights stay on this device.
2
“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, because of his discharge he is unclean.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 2. Issue of seed, shall be unclean. These legal uncleannesses were instituted in order to give the people a horror of carnal impurities. Challoner.—If the gonorrhœa, and the lawful act of marriage, (verse 16,) and nocturnal delusions, (Deuteronomy 23:10,) induce a kind of uncleanness—surely to imitate Onan is most detestable, Genesis 28:9. Tirinus.—The Jews rank the latter crime with murder, and so does Tertullian. See Exodus 21:22.
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3
This shall be his uncleanness in his discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body has stopped from his discharge, it is his uncleanness.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 3. At every moment, is not in Heb., but something like it occurs in the Sam. and Septuagint According to the Hebrew the uncleanness subsists for some time after the issue has ceased. Grotius pretends that these disorders were contagious; but the reason why God requires such purity in his people, is given verse 31. He dwelt among them, and would not allow of any disrespectful behaviour. There were to live like priests in his temple. The pagans in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, required the like attention to cleanliness in their priests. Herod. ii.—Noctem flumine purgas. Persius ii. Calmet.
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4
“‘Every bed on which he who has the discharge lies shall be unclean; and everything he sits on shall be unclean.
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5
Whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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6
He who sits on anything on which the man who has the discharge sat shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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7
“‘He who touches the body of him who has the discharge shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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8
“‘If he who has the discharge spits on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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9
“‘Whatever saddle he who has the discharge rides on shall be unclean.
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10
Whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the evening. He who carries those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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11
“‘Whomever he who has the discharge touches, without having rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 11. Such a one; the person under the disorder, unless he have washed his hands.
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12
“‘The earthen vessel, which he who has the discharge touches, shall be broken; and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 12. Broken, after he is perfectly healed. Calmet.
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13
“‘When he who has a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes; and he shall bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.
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14
“‘On the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and give them to the priest.
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15
The priest shall offer them, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. The priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD for his discharge.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 15. Offer, (faciet) “shall sacrifice.” D.—For sin. Legal, or any other that he may have incurred.
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16
“‘If any man has an emission of semen, then he shall bathe all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 16. Evening, whether the action were lawful or not. Menochius.—Some explain this verse, of nocturnal inconveniences; and verse 18, of the act of marriage. The latter rendered unclean only in as much as it hindered a person from partaking of any thing sacred, though he might perform the duties of life. Calmet.—This law was to lay some restraint on the too frequent use of marriage. Theodoret. D.
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17
Every garment and every skin which the semen is on shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the evening.
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18
If a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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19
“‘If a woman has a discharge, and her discharge in her flesh is blood, she shall be in her impurity seven days. Whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 19. At … month. The Hebrew and other versions omit this. Calmet.—But “her issue in her flesh,” implies as much. Bible.—Naturalists anciently deemed this very contagious. Solin c. i. Plin. ix. 15. Calmet.—Days, not out of the camp, but from the company of men.
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20
“‘Everything that she lies on in her impurity shall be unclean. Everything also that she sits on shall be unclean.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 20. One, except infants, and so forth
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21
Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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22
Whoever touches anything that she sits on shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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23
If it is on the bed, or on anything she sits on, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until the evening.
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24
“‘If any man lies with her, and her monthly flow is on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed he lies on shall be unclean.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 24. Days, supposing the case was not brought before the judge, and the man did it through ignorance: otherwise it was death. Calmet. 20:18.
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25
“‘If a woman has a discharge of her blood many days not in the time of her period, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her period, all the days of the discharge of her uncleanness shall be as in the days of her period. She is unclean.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 25. Blood, hæmorrhoids. Menochius.—Flowers. Hebrew “all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation. She shall be unclean.”
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26
Every bed she lies on all the days of her discharge shall be to her as the bed of her period. Everything she sits on shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her period.
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27
Whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
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28
“‘But if she is cleansed of her discharge, then she shall count to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 28. Run. Then she might act as usual, without defiling what she touched. It seems from verse 13, that this law regarded only the time while the tabernacle was in the camp. It would have been very difficult to observe it, when the people were dispersed throughout the land of Chanaan. Calmet.
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29
On the eighth day she shall take two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting.
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30
The priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her before the LORD for the uncleanness of her discharge.
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31
“‘Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, so they will not die in their uncleanness when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.’”
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 31. Teach. So the Septuagint also read. Hebrew “Thus you shall remove … from their filth.” Houbig.—Filth. God threatens to kill them, if they approach unclean. Menochius.—S. Jerom (in Gal. v.) understands this of those abominable sins, which ought not to be mentioned. Worthington.
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32
This is the law of him who has a discharge, and of him who has an emission of semen, so that he is unclean by it;
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33
and of her who has her period, and of a man or woman who has a discharge, and of him who lies with her who is unclean.
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