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Leviticus 15:18

in Leviticus 15

If a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both must bathe with water, and they will remain unclean until evening.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

The woman also with whom a man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.

KJV

The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.

This verse in Leviticus 15

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Clement of Alexandria

The Stromata Book 3 · Written before 215.

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.

This site's exposition

he shall number to himself seven days

on 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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

They shall both bathe themselves - What a wonderful tendency had these ordinances to prevent all excesses! The pains which such persons must take, the separations which they must observe, and the privations which, in consequence, they must be exposed to in the way of commerce, traffic, etc., would prevent them from making an unlawful use of lawful things.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְאִשָּׁ֕הand a woman

    veishahH802781 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֨רwhom

    ʾasherH8345497 times

  • יִשְׁכַּ֥בhe will lie with

    yishkavH7901212 times

  • אִ֛ישׁa man

    ʾishH3761663 times

  • אֹתָ֖הּwith <the> her

    ʾotahH854929 times

  • שִׁכְבַת־a laying of

    shikhvat-H79029 times

  • זָ֑רַעseed

    zara'H2233229 times

  • וְרָחֲצ֣וּand they will wash

    verachatzuH736472 times

  • בַמַּ֔יִםwith <the> water

    vamayimH4325581 times

  • וְטָמְא֖וּand they will be unclean

    vetameuH2930162 times

  • עַד־until

    ʾad-H57041261 times

  • הָעָֽרֶב׃the evening

    haarevH6153134 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Peter 2:11

    Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

    it leads to

    • 1 John 2:15–17

      Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

    • Galatians 5:24

      Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

  • Through

    1 Corinthians 6:12

    “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.

    it leads to

    • 1 Corinthians 10:23–33

      “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying.

  • Through

    Psalms 51:5

    Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

    it leads to

    • Romans 5:12

      Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

    • Job 14:4

      Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!

    • Psalms 58:3

      The wicked are estranged from the womb; the liars go astray from birth.

    • Job 15:14–16

      What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

    • Ephesians 2:3

      All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

About Leviticus

Moses and Aaron Appear before Pharaoh, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Moses and Aaron Appear before Pharaoh, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.