Leviticuschapter 15
33 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
You must keep the children of Israel separate from their uncleanness, so that they do not die by defiling My tabernacle, which is among them.
It stands in Keep them from defiling the tent, verses 31 to 33.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Laws of bodily discharges. An issue of the flesh. Men and women both. Renders unclean. Time-limited uncleanness for menstruation; extended uncleanness for chronic issue. Washing, time, and a sin offering and burnt offering after seven days of clean. ‘Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.’ The chapter takes the body's normal functions into the regime of holiness. Mark 5:25–34. The woman with the issue of blood. Reads Jesus' healing against this chapter's twelve years of ritual exclusion.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- A nation living in tents around a sanctuary, where a person's bed, seat and saddle were shared household property
- Where
- Ordinary households in the camp, with the tabernacle standing in the middle of it
- When
- Israel encamped at Sinai, closing the purity instructions. c. 1445 BC, in the second year after the Exodus, on the traditional dating that follows the book's own setting
Historical context
The speech is addressed to Moses and to Aaron together, like the other laws of this section, because a priest has to rule on them and receive the offering.
The four cases are two long conditions and two ordinary ones, and the chapter deals with a man and a woman in each pair. The definition at verse 3 covers a flow that runs and a flow that is blocked, so the condition rather than what a bystander can see is what counts.
A first hearer knew how much of daily life the chapter was touching. A bed, a seat, a saddle and a clay pot were shared and reused, and the rules trace the uncleanness outward from the person onto exactly those things.
He also knew the exemption at verse 11 as a practical one: a man who had rinsed his hands in water did not pass his condition on by touch, which made ordinary contact in a crowded camp possible.
The offering at verse 14 is two turtledoves or two young pigeons, which Leviticus 5:7 and 12:8 already allow the person who cannot afford a lamb, so the two long cases close at the lowest price in the sacrificial system.
The reason the chapter finally gives at verse 31 was the fact a first hearer lived with every day: the tent where God met Israel stood in the middle of the camp, a short walk from every household in it.
Significance
The rules told a household when an ordinary condition was over and normal life resumed, and three of the four cases ended with water and the fall of evening without any priest at all.
They also protected the sanctuary at the centre of the camp, which is the reason verse 31 gives, and which explains why the chapter comes immediately before the day on which the sanctuary itself is cleansed.
For the person under the long rule the cost was real and the way out was fixed and cheap: seven days counted from the day the flow stopped, a wash in fresh water, and two birds on the eighth day.
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 15 falls in Laws of clean and unclean (chapters 11–15). Diet, childbirth, skin disease, mildew in garments and houses, bodily discharges, holiness traced through ordinary life.
Before it: Consecration of the priesthood, chapters 8–10. After it: Day of Atonement, chapters 16.
The whole shape of Leviticus→The structure of this chapter
People2
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A man's running issue
The chapter is spoken to Aaron as well as to Moses, which is the pattern across the clean and unclean laws at 11:1, 13:1 and 14:33, because a priest has to rule on them. The definition at verse 3 covers a flow that runs and a flow that is stopped, so the thing that makes the man unclean is the condition rather than what a bystander can see. From verse 4 the uncleanness moves outward onto his bed and his seat, and the rest of the case is about what he touches.
Leviticus 15:1
“This chapter would seem to take its place more naturally before Lev 12:1-8, with the subject of which it is inmediately connected. Compare especially Lev 12:2 with Lev 15:19. It stands here between two chapters, with neither of which has it any close connection.”
Leviticus 15:2
“When any man hath a running issue--This chapter describes other forms of uncleanness, the nature of which is sufficiently intelligible in the text without any explanatory comment.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 15:2
“He must not dare to come near the sanctuary, it was at his peril if he did, nor might he eat of the holy things. This signified the filthiness of sin, and of all the productions of our corrupt nature, which render us odious to God's holiness, and utterly unfit for communion with him. Out of a pure heart well kept are the issues of life ( Prov. iv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 15:2
“When any man hath a running issue - The cases of natural uncleanness, both of men and women, mentioned in this chapter, taken in a theological point of view, are not of such importance to us as to render a particular description necessary, the letter of the text being, in general, plain enough.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 15:3
“And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue,.... Or the sign of it, by which it may be judged whether he is unclean by it or no: whether his flesh run with his issue; or salivates, or emits a flow of matter like a saliva, or in the manner of spittle: or his flesh be stopped from his issue; with it, or because of it; because it is gross, as Jarchi says, it cannot come forth freely: it is his uncleanness; whether it be one or the other, he is reckoned on account of it an unclean person.”
Leviticus 15:4
“Every bed whereon he lieth that hath the issue is unclean,.... Which he constantly makes use of; so the Targum of Jonathan, which is peculiar to him, and appointed and appropriated for him to lie upon.”
Leviticus 15:5
“And whosoever toucheth his bed,.... Is unclean. According to the Misnah (x), a bed defiles a man seven ways, so as to defile garments; standing, sitting, lying, hanging, and leaning, and by touching, and by bearing: shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water; in forty seahs of water, as the Targum of Jonathan: and be unclean until the even; be unfit for conversation with other men till the even, though both his body and clothes are washed. (x) Zabim, ut supra. (c. 2. sect. 4.)”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 15:5
“For from the beginning "the spirit of God moved over the waters," and over and again Scripture testifies to the fact that water is purifying. It was with water that God washed away the sin of the world in the time of Noah. It was with water that every one who was unclean was purified in accordance with the law, and even their garments were washed with water.”
John Damascene· written before 749· ORTHODOX FAITH 4.9patristic
The ways the uncleanness passes are listed one by one: his seat, his flesh, his spittle, his saddle, carrying what lay under him, his touch, and the vessels he handles. Verse 11 sets one exemption in the middle of the list, since his touch defiles where he has not rinsed his hands in water, and the chapter gives no reason for the difference. Earthen vessels are broken and wooden ones rinsed, the same split the book makes at 6:28 and 11:33, which treats a porous pot as past cleaning and a wooden one as washable.
Leviticus 15:6
“And he that sitteth on any thing whereon he sat that hath the issue,.... Shall be unclean, even though he does not touch it. Jarchi says, though there should be, as he adds, ten things or vessels one upon another, they all defile because of sitting, and so by lying: shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even; as in the preceding case. See Gill on Lev 15:5.”
Leviticus 15:9
“And what saddle soever he sitteth upon that hath the issue,.... When he rides upon any beast, horse, ass, or camel, whatever is put upon the creature, and he sits upon it, the saddle, and whatever appertains to it, the housing and girdle: shall be unclean; and not fit for another to use, but be defiling to him, as follows.”
Leviticus 15:11
“And hath not rinsed - That is, the person touched, to whom the washing of his hands is prescribed, if speedily done; but if that was neglected, a more labourious course was enjoined.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 15:11
“And whomsoever he toucheth - Here we find that the saliva, sitting on the same seat, lying on the same bed, riding on the same saddle, or simple contact, was sufficient to render the person unclean, meaning, possibly, in certain cases, to communicate the disorder; and it is well known that in all these ways the contagion of this disorder may be communicated. Is it not even possible that the effluvia from the body of an infected person may be the means of communicating the disease?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 15:13-18
The stopping of the issue leaves the uncleanness standing. He counts seven days from the day it stops, bathes in running water, and on the eighth day brings two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering, which is the offering Leviticus 5:7 and 12:8 allow the man who cannot afford a lamb. Verses 16 to 18 dispose of the ordinary case in three verses with water and the fall of evening and no offering, and verse 18 puts a married couple under the same one day rule. Exodus 19:15 and 1 Samuel 21:4-5 both stand on this, Israel told to come not at your wives before Sinai and David's men required to be clear of it before they may eat the hallowed bread.
Leviticus 15:15
“An atonement - Not as if this was in itself a sin, but only a punishment of sin; though oft-times it was sinful, as being a fruit of intemperance.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Unclean until the eveningvv. 16-18
Leviticus 15:16
“Most of the ancient religions made a similar recognition of impurity and of the need of purfication. Lev 15:17 Every garment - Compare Jud 1:23.”
Leviticus 15:17
“And every garment, and every skin,.... Or that is made of skin, which a man wears, or lies upon, see Lev 13:48, whereon is the seed of copulation; or on any other, for, as Gersom says, there is the same law concerning the rest of vessels, seeing this is a principal uncleanness, and defiles vessels; and perhaps the law makes mention of these, because it is more apt to be found on them: shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even; see Jud 1:23.”
Leviticus 15:18
“In the past, a man coming from marital intercourse was required to wash. It cannot be too strongly said that the providence of God revealed through the Lord no longer makes this demand. The Lord eliminates washing after intercourse as unnecessary since he has cleansed believers by one single baptism for every such encounter, just as he takes in the many washings prescribed by Moses by one single baptism.”
Clement of Alexandria· written before 215· The Stromata Book 3patristic
A woman in her separationvv. 19-24
The woman's ordinary case is measured in days rather than in symptoms, seven of them, and it closes without an offering. Leviticus 12:2 measures the uncleanness of childbirth by these same days, so the earlier chapter is written on the assumption that a reader already has this rule. Verse 24 gives the man who lies with her seven days rather than one, and the same act returns at 18:19 as a prohibition and at 20:18 with both parties cut off from among their people.
Leviticus 15:19
“And a woman when she shall have an issue of blood, and her issue shalt be in her flesh, that is, in her secret parts, as flesh is taken, ver. 2. So it notes her monthly disease.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 15:19
“We need not be at all curious in explaining these antiquated laws, it is enough if we observe the general intention; but we have need to be very cautious lest sin take occasion by the commandment to become more exceedingly sinful; and exceedingly sinful it is when lust is kindled by sparks of fire from God's altar.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 15:20
“And everything that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean,.... During her being apart from her husband, with whom she might be, and do all offices for him, but not lie with him; and whatsoever she lay upon during this time, bed or couch, and the clothes upon them, were unclean: everything also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean; chair, stool, &c. as is the case of a man, Lev 15:4.”
Leviticus 15:21
“And whosoever toucheth her bed,.... The same thing that is said of a profluvious man, and so in Lev 15:22.”
Leviticus 15:22
“And whosoever toucheth anything that she sat upon,.... Which was appropriated to her to sit upon, as the Targum of Jonathan, which was her proper and peculiar seat, what she usually sat upon; such were obliged to wash their clothes and bathe, as in all the above cases. See Lev 15:5.”
Leviticus 15:24
“The common sense of all mankind has led them to avoid the gross impropriety referred to in this verse - and it has been a general opinion, that off-spring obtained in this way has been infected with leprous, scrofulous, and other deeply radicated diseases, from which they and their posterity have been scarcely ever freed.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 15:24
“This must refer to an unexpected occurrence. Intercourse during the acknowledged period was a heavy crime, and was to be punished by “cutting off” Lev 18:19; Lev 20:18; Eze 18:6.”
A flow that runs beyond her timevv. 25-30
A flow that runs past its time moves the woman from the short rule to the long one, and it lasts as long as the issue lasts. Mark 5:25 and Luke 8:43 have a woman who had lived under these verses for twelve years, spent all her living on physicians, and came up behind Jesus in a crowd. Under this chapter her touch carried her uncleanness to whatever she touched, and Mark 5:29-30 has the traffic running the other way, the fountain of her blood dried up and virtue gone out of him. Her cleansing here is the man's cleansing exactly, seven days counted and two birds on the eighth.
Leviticus 15:26
“Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation,.... As defiled and as defiling as that, Lev 15:20, and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation; as such were when she was in that condition, see Lev 15:20.”
Leviticus 15:27
“And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean,.... Her bed and seat; the Septuagint version is, "that toucheth her", see Lev 15:19, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even; let it be observed, that in all the above passages, where it is said, "he shall bathe himself in water", the Targum of Jonathan adds, in forty seahs or pecks of water; for this was done by dipping the body all over.”
Leviticus 15:28
“But if she be cleansed of her issue,.... The disease is healed, or a stop is put to it; there are no signs of it remaining: then she shall number to herself seven days; from the time she observed it to cease: and after that she shall be clean; having bathed herself according to the usual manner of unclean persons, for their cleansing; when she would be fit to be admitted to her husband, though not as yet into the tabernacle, until she had offered her offering next directed to.”
Leviticus 15:29
“And on the eighth day,.... From the cessation of her issue, and the healing of it, at least from the time she began to number for her cleansing: she shall take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons; the same as the man that had an issue was obliged to bring.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 15:29
“Two turtles, or two young pigeons - In all these cases moral pollution was ever considered as being less or more present, as even such infirmities sprang from the original defection of man. On these accounts sacrifices must be offered; and in the case of the woman, one of the birds above mentioned must be sacrificed as a sin-offering, the other as a burnt-offering, Lev 15:30.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 15:30
“And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering,.... As in the case of a man that had an issue, the offerings of one and the other were the same and for the same purpose; See Gill on Lev 15:15; there being a legal uncleanness in their case, atonement must be made by sacrifice, typical of the atonement of Christ, who by himself has purged our sins.”
Keep them from defiling the tent
Here is the one reason the chapter gives, and it arrives after thirty verses of procedure. The danger named is the tabernacle standing in the middle of the camp, so these rules guard the place where God dwells among them. Why these particular discharges defile is left unsaid, and the commentators read the silence differently: Adam Clarke takes the rules as a guard against contagion, and Keil and Delitzsch take a discharge as the death at work in a body made to carry life. The word unclean falls twenty-seven times in the chapter and clean three times.
Leviticus 15:31
“The grand reason of all these laws was, to separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness. Hereby they were taught their privilege and honour, that they were purified unto God, a peculiar people; for that was a defilement to them, which was not so to others.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 15:31
“This solemn admonition is addressed to Moses and Aaron, see Lev 15:1. Lev 15:31 My tabernacle - Strictly, “my dwelling-place” משׁכן mı̂shkān, as in Lev 8:10; Lev 17:4; Lev 26:11. The word rendered “tabernacle” elsewhere in Leviticus is properly “tent.” See the Exo 26:1 note.”
The closing formula names the cases again in the order the chapter took them, the man's issue, the emission of seed, the woman's period, and the man who lies with her while she is unclean, which is how 13:59 and 14:57 sign off as well. The Mishnah, compiled in the land of Israel around 200 AD, gives two whole tractates to these thirty-three verses, Zavim to the man's issue and Niddah to the woman's, and Zavim works out in detail the ways a bed passes the uncleanness on. The chapter a reader skips carries a large body of later Jewish law on its back.
Leviticus 15:32
“This is the law of him that hath an issue,.... In Lev 15:32 is a recapitulation of the several laws in this chapter, as of a man that has a "gonorrhoea": and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled therewith; involuntarily, that suffers a nocturnal pollution.”
Keep studying
On this page
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.