Other legal uncleannesses.

¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

² Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them: The man who undergoes a flow of seed shall be unclean.¹

1. 15:2Issue of seed shall be unclean: These legal uncleannesses were instituted in order to give the people a horror of carnal impurities.(Challoner)

³ And then he shall be judged subject to this fault, if a filthy fluid, at each moment, adheres to his flesh and gathers there.¹

1. 15:3Nocturnal emissions are mentioned in verse 15:2, but this next verse, and the following verses, refer to something further, such as an infection or disease that would cause an infected fluid to continually leak from his flesh. Hence the reference in verse 15:13 to being healed of a disease.(Conte)

⁴ Every bed on which he sleeps shall be unclean, and every place where he sits.

⁵ If any man has touched his couch, he shall wash his clothes, and having washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening.

⁶ If he will have sat where that man has sat, he shall also wash his clothes, and having washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening.

⁷ Whoever has touched his flesh shall wash his clothes, and having washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening.

⁸ If such a man has cast his spittle upon him who is clean, he shall wash his clothes, and having washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening.

⁹ The saddle on which he has sat shall be unclean.

¹⁰ And whatever has been under him who has undergone a flow of seed shall be polluted until evening. Whoever carries any of these things shall wash his clothes, and having washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening.¹

1. 15:10The text says ‘flow of seed’ but the meaning is more general, encompassing various diseases that might produce some type of infected fluid.(Conte)

¹¹ All whom such a one has touched, not having washed his hands before, shall wash his clothes, and having washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening.

¹² If he has touched an earthen vessel, it shall be broken. But if it is a wooden vessel, it shall be washed with water.

¹³ If he who suffers from this affliction will have been healed, he shall number seven days after his cleansing, and having washed his clothes and his entire body in living water, he shall be clean.

¹⁴ Then, on the eighth day, he shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and he shall advance, in the sight of the Lord, toward the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, and he shall give these to the priest,

¹⁵ who shall offer one for sin, and the other as a holocaust. And he shall pray for him before the Lord, so that he may be cleansed from the flow of his seed.

¹⁶ A man from whom the seed of sexual intercourse goes out shall wash his entire body with water, and he shall be unclean until evening.

¹⁷ The garment or skin which he will have, he shall wash with water, and it shall be unclean until evening.

¹⁸ The woman with whom he has had sexual intercourse shall be washed with water, and she shall be unclean until evening.

¹⁹ The woman who, at the return of the month, undergoes the flow of blood shall be separated for seven days.

²⁰ All who will touch her shall be unclean until evening.

²¹ And everything on which she sleeps or sits, in the days of her separation, shall be polluted.

²² Whoever will have touched her bed shall wash his clothes, and having washed himself with water, he shall be unclean until evening.

²³ Anyone who will have touched any item on which she has sat shall wash his clothes, and having washed himself with water, he shall be polluted until evening.

²⁴ If a man has sexual intercourse with her in the time of her monthly flow of blood, he shall be unclean for seven days, and every bed on which he sleeps shall be polluted.

²⁵ The woman who undergoes a flow of blood many days beyond her time of menstruation, or whose blood does not cease to flow after the menstrual blood, as long as she is subject to this affliction, she shall be unclean, just as if she were in her time of menstruation.

²⁶ Every bed on which she sleeps, and every item on which she sits, shall be polluted.

²⁷ Whoever will have touched these shall wash his clothes, and having washed himself with water, he shall be unclean until evening.

²⁸ If the blood has stopped and has ceased to flow, she shall number seven days for her purification,

²⁹ and on the eighth day she shall offer for herself, to the priest, two turtledoves or two young pigeons, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony.

³⁰ And he shall offer one for sin, and the other as a holocaust, and he shall pray for her before the Lord, and for the flow of her uncleanness.

³¹ Therefore, you shall teach the sons of Israel to be cautious of uncleanness, so that they may not die in their filth, when they will have polluted my tabernacle, which is among them.

³² This is the law of him who undergoes a flow of seed, or who is polluted by sexual intercourse,

³³ and of her who is separated in the time of menstruation, or who has a continual flow of blood, and of the man who sleeps with her.¹

1. 15:33There is a profound theological reason why such things are treated as ritual impurity: all these things are a result of the fall from grace of Adam and Eve, including sexual intercourse as a means of procreation. Ritual impurity is an acknowledgement of our fallen state, but it is a different matter than culpable personal sin.(Conte)