Leviticuschapter 15
33 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
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.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Leviticus Overview.
Moses gave this law to a nation living in tents around the sanctuary, where beds, seats and saddles were shared by a household. It closes the section on the clean and the unclean with the flows of the body, both the ordinary and the long lasting. The first hearers would meet these rules in the course of married and family life. Listen for how uncleanness passes from a person to what they lie or sit on, and how water and evening end most of it. Notice the reason given at the close, which concerns the dwelling place of the LORD among them.
Context
- Who
- A nation living in tents around a sanctuary, where a person's bed, seat and saddle were shared household property
- What
- A purity law for discharges from the body, for men and for women, ordinary and prolonged, and for what those discharges touch.
- Where
- The tents and households of the camp, with the tabernacle at its centre.
- When
- The second year after the Exodus, about 1445 BC on the traditional dating.
- Why
- To keep Israel from bringing uncleanness near the tabernacle, where the LORD dwelt among them, and so from dying in it.
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
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.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The classical reading of this chapter is Rashi's, and Rashi reads it almost line by line out of Sifra, the halakhic midrash on Leviticus, which he names at nearly every verse. His method here is legal rather than devotional: he fixes which part of the body the law speaks of, which objects carry uncleanness and how far it reaches. At the opening he works from the wording itself, and having found that the text speaks of one part of the flesh rather than of all of it he says, "Now, however, that Scripture has made a difference between one part of his flesh and another part of his flesh, I have the right to draw a conclusion" (Rashi on Leviticus 15:2:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, 1929 to 1934, public domain, citing Sifra, Metzora Parashat Zavim, Section 1 5). On the third verse he settles the sense of a rare word by its sound, saying that "the meaning is that his flesh runs with its issue as spittle" (Rashi on Leviticus 15:3:1).
Rashi's second concern is reach. A bed a man has lain on carries a heavier uncleanness than a thing he merely touched, and a seat carries it through whatever is piled on top of it, so that "even if there be ten things one upon the other" the lowest of them governs the rest (Rashi on Leviticus 15:6:1, citing Sifra, Metzora Parashat Zavim, Chapter 3 1). Where the chapter speaks of a man rinsing his hands, Rashi takes it of immersing the whole body and draws a rule of the bath from it: the water need reach "but only such a limb which is visible, such as the hands" (Rashi on Leviticus 15:11:1, citing Sifra, Metzora Parashat Zavim, Chapter 4 5). At the eighteenth verse he declines to give a cause at all and leaves the law standing on the word of God alone: "It is a decree of the King that a woman should become unclean through sexual intercourse" (Rashi on Leviticus 15:18:1, citing Niddah 41b). On the man who lies with a woman in her separation he asks whether the man takes only the days she has left, and answers that he does not, since "One might think that he follows in her wake" is the reading the text itself refuses (Rashi on Leviticus 15:24:1, citing Niddah 33a). At the close he reads the verb of the thirty-first verse as the verb of separation, the same root that stands behind the Nazirite (Rashi on Leviticus 15:31:1, citing Sifra, Metzora Parashat Zavim, Chapter 9 6). Ibn Ezra comments at six places in this chapter, at 15:1, 15:7, 15:14, 15:16, 15:17 and 15:29. The corpus holds no English version of any of them under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand here as citations.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, and every one of them is a locator without text, so this site cites where the rabbis took the chapter up rather than what they said there. The tractate that returns most often is Arakhin, at 3a:4 on the second verse, at 14b:8 on the twenty-seventh and at 29a:22 and 3a:5 on the nineteenth and the thirty-third, and after it Chullin at 51b:1 and 106a:12, Chagigah at 23b:5 and 23b:6, and Niddah at 43b:3. The Jerusalem Talmud is taken up at Berakhot 1:1:15, Bava Kamma 1:1:8, Nazir 9:2:9, Chagigah 2:7:1 and 3:2:8, Yevamot 6:1:5 and Avodah Zarah 3:6:1. The midrashic locators are Bamidbar Rabbah 10:11 and 23:13, Midrash Lekach Tov at Leviticus 15:3, 15:7, 15:8 and 15:23, Avot DeRabbi Natan Recension B 1:3, and the Ein Yaakov collections at Eiruvin 1:6, Sanhedrin 6:19 and Shevuot 2:4. Rashi himself hands on locators as he goes, and the ones he names in the kept text of this chapter are Sifra, Metzora Parashat Zavim at Sections 1 to 5 and Chapters 1 to 9, and the Babylonian Talmud at Niddah 55b, Niddah 41b, Niddah 33a and Eruvin 27a.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Leviticus 15:2:1, 15:3:1, 15:6:1, 15:11:1, 15:18:1, 15:24:1 and 15:31:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, public domain, 1929; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 15:1:1, 15:7:1, 15:14:1, 15:16:1, 15:17:1 and 15:29:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Sifra, Sifra, Metzora Parashat Zavim, Sections 1 to 5 and Chapters 1 to 9, as Rashi cites them; Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 3a:4, 3a:5, 14b:8 and 29a:22; Chullin 51b:1 and 106a:12; Chagigah 23b:5 and 23b:6; Niddah 43b:3; Bava Kamma 24a:2 and 66b:5; Bava Batra 9b:4 and 166a:7; Megillah 8a:13 and 20a:12; Pesachim 3a:12; Bekhorot 38a:5; Horayot 4a:13 and 4a:17; Keritot 28a:10; Avodah Zarah 68b:14; and, as Rashi cites them, Niddah 55b, Niddah 41b, Niddah 33a and Eruvin 27a; Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 1:1:15, Bava Kamma 1:1:8, Nazir 9:2:9, Chagigah 2:7:1 and 3:2:8, Yevamot 6:1:5, Avodah Zarah 3:6:1; Midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah 10:11 and 23:13; Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 15:3:1, 15:7:1, 15:8:1 and 15:23:1; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 1:3; Ein Yaakov, Ein Yaakov, Eiruvin 1:6; Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 6:19 and Shevuot 2:4.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A man's running issue
Leviticus 15:1-5
The chapter is spoken to Aaron as well as to Moses, as the clean and unclean laws are at 11:1, 13:1 and 14:33, because a priest must rule on them. Verse 3 covers a discharge that flows and one that is blocked, so the condition itself makes the man unclean. From verse 4 the uncleanness moves outward onto his bed and his furniture.
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.”
Verses 2 to 15 treat a lasting discharge that ends with seven days and an offering, distinct from the single emission of verse 16. Matthew Henry notes that while unclean the man could neither approach the sanctuary nor eat the holy things. Adam Clarke finds the text plain enough.
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
“And what fruit has the sinner then of those things whereof he has so much reason to be ashamed? As modesty is an ornament of grace to the head and chains about the neck, so chastity is health to the navel and marrow to the bones; but uncleanness is a wound and dishonour, the consumption of the flesh and the body, and a sin which is often its own punishment more than any other.”
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
John Wesley explains the blocked case as a discharge that has run and then been largely stopped by its thickness or by some obstruction. John Gill, citing Jarchi, gives the same cause. The law counts the man unclean in either state.
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.”
The bed and the seat head the list of things he makes unclean. John Gill, following the Targum of Jonathan, takes the bed as the one set apart for his regular use. Verses 5 and 6 then govern whoever touches them.
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.”
Contact with the bed brings a lighter uncleanness than the man's own, cleared by washing and the evening. John Gill records the Mishnah's seven ways a bed conveys it, by standing, sitting, lying, hanging, leaning, touching and carrying, and the Targum's forty seahs of water for the bath. He stays unclean until evening even after washing.
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
Leviticus 15:6-12
The ways the uncleanness passes are listed: his furniture, his body, his spit, his saddle, what lay under him, his touch, and the vessels he handles. Verse 11 sets one exception, since his touch defiles only when he has not first rinsed his hands, and no reason is given. Clay pots are broken and wooden utensils rinsed, the same split the book makes at 6:28 and 11:33.
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.”
Touching the man's body carries the same one-day uncleanness as touching his bed, cleared by washing and evening. The man himself, as Matthew Henry observes, could be cleansed only after seven days of waiting past the cure, a bath in spring water and a sacrifice. The two burdens differ in length.
Saliva passes on his uncleanness as touch does. The person spat on washes, bathes and waits for evening, the same one-day rule as verses 5 to 7. The man's own state, as Matthew Henry notes, lasts until seven days after his cure and a sacrifice.
Verse 9 extends the seat rule of verse 4 to travel. John Gill includes the whole riding gear, the saddle with its housing and girdle, on a horse, a donkey or a camel. Anyone who later handled it would be affected, as verse 10 goes on to say.
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.”
Verse 10 separates two degrees of contact. John Gill reads the first, touching anything that lay under him, as uncleanness until evening, while carrying it adds washing clothes and bathing. The heavier contact receives the heavier rule.
The BSB makes the man with the discharge the one who rinses his hands. John Wesley took the rinsing to belong to the person touched, who could wash at once and escape the more laborious course. Adam Clarke reads the contact rules as a guard against contagion.
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
His touch reaches the household's vessels as well as its people. Every clay pot he touches while the discharge lasts is broken, as John Gill states the rule, so the household bears a cost for his condition.
Leviticus 15:13-18
The uncleanness outlasts the discharge: he counts off seven days, bathes in fresh water, and brings two birds on the eighth day. One is a sin offering and one a burnt offering, the offering Leviticus 5:7 and 12:8 allow one who cannot afford a lamb. Verses 16 to 18 settle the ordinary case with water, evening and no offering, and Exodus 19:15 and 1 Samuel 21:4-5 rest on verse 18.
two turtledoves, or two young pigeons: He comes in person to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, which his uncleanness had kept him from, and hands the birds to the priest. Matthew Henry reads the offering as Christ's blood applied for justification and His grace for sanctification. He brings them himself.
The sin offering raises the question of whether the discharge was itself a sin. John Wesley calls it a punishment of sin, and a sin at times where intemperance lay behind it. Matthew Henry reads the offerings as pictures of gospel grace.
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 evening
An emission of semen brings one day of uncleanness. Albert Barnes notes that most ancient religions recognized a similar impurity and a need for purification. A full bath and the evening end it, with none of the offerings of verses 14 and 15.
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.”
John Gill suggests clothing and leather are named because the emission was most apt to be found on them. Citing Gersom, he extends the same law to other vessels. The item is washed and stays unclean until evening, like the man in verse 16.
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.”
Both spouses bathe and wait until evening. Adam Clarke reads the rule as a restraint on excess, keeping people from the unlawful use of lawful things. Clement of Alexandria held that the one baptism of believers replaces this washing along with the many washings of Moses.
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 separation
Leviticus 15:19-24
The woman's ordinary case is measured in days, seven of them, and closes without an offering. Leviticus 12:2 measures the uncleanness of childbirth by these same days, so the earlier chapter assumes the reader knows this rule. Verse 24 makes the man who lies with her unclean for seven days, and the act returns at 18:19 as a prohibition and at 20:18 with both cut off.
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
Verse 20 applies to the woman's bed and seat the rule already given for the man in verse 4. John Gill notes that during her separation she could still live with her husband and serve him in every office except sharing his bed. Matthew Henry asks readers to see the general intention.
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.”
Touching her bed brings the same washing, bathing and evening wait as touching the man's bed in verse 5. John Gill states the parallel directly. Throughout the chapter the rules for the man and the woman run side by side.
Leviticus 15:21
“And whosoever toucheth her bed,.... The same thing that is said of a profluvious man, and so in Lev 15:22.”
John Gill, following the Targum of Jonathan, takes the furniture as her own usual seat. Whoever touches it washes, bathes and waits for evening, as in verse 5. The seat carries her condition while she is away from it.
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.”
Verse 23 joins bed and seat in one rule and names only the wait until evening. The BSB reads it as a summary, while John Gill's wording speaks of a thing that is on her bed or on her seat. Both readings end the contact at evening.
Verse 24 sets seven days of uncleanness while 20:18 cuts both off from their people, and Albert Barnes reconciles them by reading this verse of a flow that begins unexpectedly. Adam Clarke reports an opinion of his day that such intercourse harmed children conceived by it. He gives it as a general opinion.
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 time
Leviticus 15:25-30
A discharge that runs past its time moves the woman from the short rule to the long one. Mark 5:25 and Luke 8:43 tell of a woman twelve years under these verses, and at Mark 5:29-30 her touch runs the other way: her bleeding stopped and power went out of Jesus. Her cleansing here matches the man's, seven days and two birds on the eighth.
A discharge outside her regular time makes her bed and seat unclean on the same terms as verse 20. John Gill calls it as defiled and defiling as that bed. The difference comes at the end, with seven days counted and an offering, as Matthew Henry notes.
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.”
John Gill notes that the Septuagint reads touches her in place of touches these things, which would make contact with the woman herself the case. He adds that wherever the chapter says bathe, the Targum of Jonathan specifies forty seahs of water, since the whole body was dipped. The rule matches verse 21.
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.”
The seven days are counted from the time the flow stops, matching the man's count in verse 13. John Gill holds that after them, having bathed, she could return to her husband, while the tabernacle waited for the offering of the eighth day. Matthew Henry cites Ezekiel 36:17, where it pictures idolatry.
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.”
She brings the same two birds as the man in verse 14, and John Gill stresses that her offering matched his. Adam Clarke explains the sacrifice by holding that such infirmities spring from the original defection of man, so some moral pollution was always counted present. Her access to the tabernacle returns here.
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
The closing words match verse 15 for the man, and the atonement is made for the discharge itself. John Gill treats it as a legal uncleanness removed by sacrifice, and he reads that sacrifice as a type of the atonement of Christ. Man and woman are restored by one rite.
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
This is the one reason the chapter gives, after thirty verses of procedure: uncleanness left among the people defiles the tabernacle where God dwells among them. Why these discharges defile is left unsaid. Adam Clarke takes the rules as a guard against contagion, and Keil and Delitzsch take a discharge as death at work in a body made to carry life.
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.”
Leviticus 15:32-33
The closing formula names the cases again in the order the chapter took them, as 13:59 and 14:57 also close. 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 discharge and Niddah to the woman's. The chapter a reader skips carries a large body of later Jewish law.
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.”
The summary ends with the man who lies with an unclean woman, the case of verse 24. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the whole law as teaching reverence for holy things by keeping every kind of uncleanness, ceremonial and natural, from the tabernacle. Matthew Henry asks readers to observe its general intention.
How this psalm is built
The form: Ritual instruction on bodily discharges, the last of the five chapters on the clean and the unclean, as Wenham classes it.
A A man's long discharge, ended by seven days and two birds
Leviticus 15:2-15
B A man's ordinary emission, ended by water and evening
Leviticus 15:16-18
X The man and woman together, under the one day rule
Leviticus 15:18
B′ A woman's ordinary period, ended by seven days and no offering
Leviticus 15:19-24
A′ A woman's long discharge, ended by seven days and two birds
Leviticus 15:25-30
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The four cases in a ring | The chapter takes a man's long discharge, then a man's ordinary one, then a woman's ordinary period, then a woman's long discharge. The two long cases stand at the outside and the two ordinary cases at the inside, and the closing formula at verses 32 and 33 names them again in the order the chapter took them. The two long cases end identically, seven days counted and two birds on the eighth. | Leviticus 15:2, Leviticus 15:16, Leviticus 15:19, Leviticus 15:25, Leviticus 15:32 |
| The list of ways it passes | The chapter names them one by one: his bed, 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 only where he has not rinsed his hands in water, and the chapter gives no reason for the difference.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1831, on Leviticus 15:11. | Leviticus 15:4, Leviticus 15:6, Leviticus 15:8, Leviticus 15:9, Leviticus 15:11, Leviticus 15:12 |
| Unclean, thirty times against clean three times | The word unclean stands thirty times in thirty-three verses and the word clean three times, counted over the Berean text in the store. The proportion is the reverse of chapter 13, where the verdicts fall nearly even, and it tells a reader that this chapter is about a state rather than about a judgment. | Leviticus 15:2, Leviticus 15:19, Leviticus 15:25, Leviticus 15:31 |
| The clay pot broken and the wooden one rinsed | Verse 12 breaks a clay vessel the man touches and rinses a wooden one. Leviticus 6:28 and 11:33 make the same split, which treats a porous pot as past cleaning and a wooden one as washable. The book states the difference between materials three times and explains it nowhere.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, on Leviticus 15:12. | Leviticus 15:12, Leviticus 6:28, Leviticus 11:33 |
The chapter closes a block of five and is written on the assumption that the reader has the others. Leviticus 12:2 measures the uncleanness of childbirth by the days of this chapter's verse 19, so chapter 12 depends on a rule given three chapters after it. The breaking of clay and rinsing of wood at verse 12 repeats 6:28 and 11:33. The seven days and the two birds repeat the pattern chapters 12 and 14 have already used.
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 31 also explains the placement of chapter 16. Once the reason for the purity laws is given as the danger of defiling the tabernacle that stands in the middle of the camp, the next thing the book needs is a day on which the tabernacle itself is cleansed, and Leviticus 16:16 makes atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the Israelites.
The historical value
The chapter assumes ordinary household life in a camp: beds, seats, saddles, clay pots and wooden vessels, springs of fresh water for bathing. Exodus 19:15 and 1 Samuel 21:4 and 5 both stand on verse 18, Israel told to abstain before Sinai and David's men required to be clear of it before they may eat the consecrated bread, so the rule is attested in narrative outside the law.
The Mishnah, compiled in the land of Israel around 200 AD, gives these thirty-three verses two whole tractates, Zavim for the man's discharge and Niddah for 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.
The New Testament's use
No verse of the chapter is quoted in the New Testament with a citation formula. Mark 5:25 and Luke 8:43 present a woman who had lived under verses 25 to 30 for twelve years and had spent all she had on physicians. Under this chapter her touch carried her uncleanness to whatever she touched, and Mark 5:29 and 30 have the traffic running the other way: the source of her bleeding dries up and power goes out from him. The scene is written for a reader who knows these verses, and it is the clearest New Testament use of the chapter even though nothing is quoted.
The debated point
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, which reads them as practical public health. Keil and Delitzsch take a discharge as the death at work in a body made to carry life, which reads them as symbolic. A third reading, common among modern scholars of the purity system, holds that the chapter tracks anything that crosses the boundary of the body and needs no further explanation than that.
The strongest objection to the contagion reading is verse 18, which puts an ordinary and healthy act under the same rule. The strongest objection to the symbolic reading is that the chapter names its own reason at verse 31 and the reason given is the sanctuary rather than death. The strongest objection to the boundary reading is that it describes the pattern without accounting for why the sanctuary is the thing at risk.
Where to go deeper
The woman of Mark 5 who lived under verses 25 to 30 is set out at healing. The tabernacle that verse 31 protects is set out at the veil and the mercy seat. The category the chapter closes belongs to the owed page on the clean and the unclean.
Keep studying
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 form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1831, on Leviticus 15:31; Gordon Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 1979, the partition this site's Leviticus dossier carries as proposed under his name, which closes the purity section at 15:33 and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, on Leviticus 15:31.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.