Leviticus 15

Leviticus 11–15 forms a section of purity laws dealing with what is clean and unclean. Following the laws on food (chapter 11), childbirth (Leviticus 12), and serious skin diseases and mildew (Leviticus 13 and Leviticus 14), this chapter concludes the section by addressing the uncleanness that arises from bodily discharges. The next chapter, Leviticus 16, contains the regulations for the Day of Atonement.

Outline

• Verses 1–2 The LORD speaks to Moses and Aaron. Anyone who has a running issue from his body is unclean.
• Verses 3–12 The bed on which a man with a discharge lies, anything on which he sits, the saddle he rides on, and whatever he touches are unclean. Anyone who touches these things or on whom he spits must wash his clothes and bathe, and is unclean until evening. An earthen vessel he touches is to be broken, and a wooden vessel is to be rinsed in water.
• Verses 13–15 When the discharge stops, he counts seven days, then washes his clothes and bathes in running water. On the eighth day he brings two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, who offers them as a sin offering and a burnt offering.
• Verses 16–18 A man who has an emission of semen, as well as a man and woman who have lain together, must bathe in water and are unclean until evening.
• Verses 19–24 A menstruating woman is unclean for seven days. Whoever touches her is unclean until evening, and a man who lies with her is unclean for seven days.
• Verses 25–30 If a flow of blood continues for a long time outside her period of menstruation, she is unclean for its duration, as during menstruation. When the flow stops, she becomes clean after seven days, and on the eighth day she brings the same offerings as in verses 13–15.
• Verses 31–33 The purpose and summary of these regulations: to keep Israel from dying in their uncleanness by defiling God's tabernacle.

Key Verses

• Leviticus 15:31 "that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them." This verse states the purpose of the purity laws as a whole, connecting them with God's dwelling place in the midst of His people.
• Leviticus 15:25 This verse addresses the case of a woman who has "an issue of her blood many days." It provides background for understanding the situation of the woman with an issue of blood in the Gospels.

People and Places

• Moses and Aaron: They receive the word of the LORD and convey it to the children of Israel.
• The priest: He receives the offerings of those who have been cleansed and offers them as a sin offering and a burnt offering.
• The tent of meeting: The place to which the offerings are brought; it refers to the tabernacle in the wilderness.

Points for Reflection

• The text does not specify what illness the "running issue" refers to. Many interpreters understand it as an abnormal genital discharge.
• The "uncleanness" in view here is generally understood not as moral sin but as a ritual state that bars a person from taking part in worship. Normal occurrences such as an emission of semen or menstruation are cleansed by washing and the passage of time, whereas a prolonged abnormal discharge requires an offering. Some scholars draw attention to this distinction.
• In rabbinic Jewish tradition, the regulations concerning menstruation continued to be observed. Many Protestant traditions, by contrast, hold that such ceremonial laws have been fulfilled in Christ and do not observe them literally. The Westminster Confession of Faith likewise confesses that the ceremonial law has been abrogated.
• A frequently cited New Testament connection is the account of the woman who had suffered from an issue of blood for twelve years and was healed when she touched Jesus' garment (Mark 5:25–34). According to the law, whatever her hand touched would become unclean, yet in this account the woman herself is made clean. Many sermons and commentaries emphasize this reversal.