Leviticus 15
Leviticus 15 sets out the laws concerning discharges from the body. The LORD speaks to Moses and Aaron, and the instruction that follows is plain and exact: when a man has a running issue out of his flesh… he is unclean (v. 2). What stands out at once is how widely that uncleanness travels. It does not stay with the man. His bed is unclean, his seat is unclean, the saddle he rides and the vessels he handles are unclean, and anyone who touches any of these - or whom he touches with unrinsed hands - must wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even (vv. 4-12). The chapter is unembarrassed by the body; it speaks of these things the way it speaks of anything else, with sober care.3
The law is not content to leave the unclean person in his uncleanness. There is a way back, and the chapter lays it out step by step. When the issue stops, the man is to number to himself seven days for his cleansing, wash, and bathe his flesh in running water, and on the eighth day bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons to the door of the tabernacle, where the priest offers one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering and shall make an atonement for him (vv. 13-15). The same pattern governs the night's emission and the washing that follows (vv. 16-18), and then the laws of the woman's issue, both the ordinary cycle and the prolonged flow, each with its own seven days and its own offering (vv. 19-30). Washing, waiting, and an offering: that is the road from unclean to clean, and it must be walked again every time.
Then the whole chapter is gathered into a single sentence that tells why any of it matters: 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 (v. 31). The separation is not contempt for the body and not mere ceremony for its own sake. It is about life and death in the presence of a holy God who has come to dwell in the midst of His people. Uncleanness and the holy place cannot meet without consequence, and the law stands between them so the people may live. The chapter closes by naming again everyone it has addressed - the man with an issue, the man with an emission, the woman in her separation, the woman with a prolonged flow, and their partners - so that no one is left outside its reach (vv. 32-33).2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Leviticus 15:1-15When Any Man Hath a Running Issue
1And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean. 3And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness. 4Every bed, whereon he lieth that hath the issue, is unclean: and every thing, whereon he sitteth, shall be unclean. 5And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
The chapter opens, as so much of Leviticus does, with the LORD speaking and a careful instruction following: When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh… he is unclean (v. 2). The first thing to understand is what unclean means here, because the modern ear hears it wrongly. It is not a charge of sin. A man with this condition has done nothing immoral; his body is simply doing something the law treats as ritually defiling. Unclean names a state, not a fault - a condition that bars a person, for a time, from the holy place and the worshipping assembly. The law is unembarrassed about the body. It does not avert its eyes or reach for euphemism; it states the matter with the same level voice it uses for everything else, whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue (v. 3). What it is establishing from the first verse is a distinction that runs through the whole book: there is the holy, and there is the common; and within the common, there is the clean and the unclean. To be unclean is not to be wicked. It is to be, for now, out of step with the holiness that surrounds the place where God has chosen to dwell.3
What the next verses press, with a kind of relentless thoroughness, is how far the uncleanness reaches. It does not stay contained in the man's body. Every bed, whereon he lieth… is unclean: and every thing, whereon he sitteth, shall be unclean (v. 4). And it does not stop at the furniture. Whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even (v. 5); the same for whoever sits where he sat (v. 6), whoever touches his flesh (v. 7), whomever he spits upon (v. 8). The defilement is contagious, and it spreads outward by simple contact in every direction - from the man, to the things he uses, to the people who touch those things, and on. This is the chapter's great theme, and it is worth feeling its weight rather than hurrying past it. Uncleanness, once present, does not keep to itself; it reaches, and what it reaches becomes unclean in turn, and must be washed and must wait. The law is teaching Israel something about the nature of defilement itself: that it is pervasive, that it travels, that mere proximity is not safe. And it is teaching that the remedy is never automatic - always there must be washing, and always there must be the passing of time, until the even.
6And he that sitteth on any thing whereon he sat that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 7And he that toucheth the flesh of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 8And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean; then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 9And what saddle soever he rideth upon that hath the issue shall be unclean. 10And whosoever toucheth any thing that was under him shall be unclean until the even: and he that beareth any of those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 11And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 12And the vessel of earth, that he toucheth which hath the issue, shall be broken: and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.
The widening circle continues, and now it takes in what a man rides and what he handles. What saddle soever he rideth upon… shall be unclean, and whoever touches anything that was under him is unclean (vv. 9-10). One small clause in verse 11 is quietly merciful: whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in water - the touch defiles if he has not first rinsed, which implies that a measure of washing already checks the spread. The law is not arbitrary cruelty; even within the system of contagion there is a way to lessen it. Then verse 12 makes a sharp distinction that will matter through the rest of Scripture: the vessel of earth, that he toucheth… shall be broken: and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water. A clay pot, porous and unglazed, soaks defilement in and cannot be cleansed; it must be destroyed. A wooden vessel, harder and less absorbent, can be rinsed and kept. The difference is not about germs - this is ritual law, not hygiene - but about a vivid picture: some things take defilement so deeply into themselves that they cannot be made clean again, only broken. The chapter keeps circling one inescapable fact. Uncleanness goes everywhere, into everything, and short of destruction the only response the law can offer is to wash and to wait.
13And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean. 14And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest: 15And the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD for his issue.
After all the spreading, the chapter turns to the way home, and it is deliberate and unhurried. First the flow must actually stop: when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue (v. 13). Only then does the cleansing begin - not the moment the symptom ends, but from there. He must number to himself seven days, the biblical span of completion, and at the end wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in running water - literally living water, the fresh water of a stream rather than a still cistern. There is a care in this that resists every shortcut. Cleansing is not declared; it is undergone. It takes time, it takes washing, and it engages the body itself. And it does not end at the bath. On the eighth day he brings two turtledoves, or two young pigeons to the door of the tabernacle, and the priest offers one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and so make an atonement for him… for his issue (vv. 14-15). Notice that even though the issue was no sin, the road back still passes through the altar. Washing cleanses the flesh; only the offering restores the person fully to the presence of God. The provision of two small birds, the cheapest of all the sacrifices, also says something tender: this way back is open to the poorest in Israel. No one is too low to come home.
Leviticus 15:16-18Unclean Until the Even
16And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even. 17And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even. 18The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.
Between the laws of the prolonged issue and the laws of the woman's cycle, the chapter places a brief, plain word about the ordinary emissions of married and bodily life. A seminal emission, whether at night or in the marriage bed, renders a man unclean, and he is to wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even (v. 16); any cloth touched by it is likewise washed (v. 17); and after the marital act, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even (v. 18). Two things deserve a careful and unhurried reading here. First, the uncleanness is brief and light - not seven days, not an offering, only a bath and the coming of evening. This is the gentlest level of the whole chapter, a passing state cleared by nightfall. Second, and crucially, nothing in these verses treats marriage or the body as shameful. The act between husband and wife is nowhere condemned, the body is nowhere called dirty, and the temporary uncleanness is not a punishment for intimacy. The physical creation, including the body and its God-given capacities, is good. What the law marks is simply that even the most ordinary and blessed bodily acts touch the boundary between common life and the holy place, and so call for the rinse and the brief wait before one draws near to worship. It is not disgust. It is reverence - a way of honoring how set-apart the presence of God is.
Leviticus 15:19-33That They Die Not in Their Uncleanness
19And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. 20And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean. 21And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 22And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 23And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even. 24And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean.
The law now turns to the woman, and it names her monthly cycle plainly and without flinching: if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days (v. 19). The pattern matches the man's case closely - her uncleanness spreads to what she lies on and sits on, and to whoever touches those things (vv. 20-23) - which is itself worth noticing: the law treats the woman's condition with exactly the same gravity and the same structure as the man's, neither making more of it nor making less. There is no hint here that womanhood is uniquely defiling; the rules are evenhanded. The natural rhythm of a woman's body is named as openly as the man's emission, and accounted for in the same way. What this required of ancient Israel was a built-in season of rest and separation woven into ordinary life - not a verdict on a woman's worth, but a recognition that her body, like the man's, touches the boundary of the holy and so passes through times of being set apart. Verse 24 extends the reckoning to a husband who lies with her during this time, who then shares the seven days of uncleanness. Throughout, the same calm refrain governs everything - unclean until the even, seven days, wash and wait - the steady machinery of a law that can hold defilement at bay but, as the chapter will finally confess, can never bring it to an end.
25And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean. 26Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation. 27And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 28But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. 29And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 30And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her before the LORD for the issue of her uncleanness.
Now the law reaches the hardest case, the one that the Gospel will pick up directly. Beyond the ordinary cycle, there is the prolonged flow: if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation (v. 25). Here the uncleanness is no longer a bounded week but stretches on for all the days of the issue - potentially months, even years - with no fixed end, the bed and seat defiled the whole while (vv. 25-27). One must pause over what this meant for the woman who lived it. A condition like this did not merely inconvenience; it isolated. For as long as it lasted she was cut off from the assembly, unable to draw near, contagious by the law to all she touched, set apart not for a season but indefinitely. It is precisely this woman - diseased with an issue of blood twelve years - who one day reaches through a crowd to the hem of a garment. But the chapter does not leave even her without a way back. If she be cleansed of her issue, the same gracious path opens: number to herself seven days, and then on the eighth, two birds brought to the priest, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering, and so make an atonement for her… for the issue of her uncleanness (vv. 28-30). The road home is the same for her as for the man, no harder and no longer. When the flow at last stops, the count of seven begins, the offering is brought, and she is restored to the presence of God and the fellowship of His people.
31Thus 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. 32This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled therewith; 33And of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that hath an issue, of the man, and of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is unclean.
The whole chapter now gathers into a single charge that finally tells us why: 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 (v. 31). Every washing, every counted day, every bird brought to the door has been driving toward this. The point of it all is not ceremony for its own sake and not contempt for the body; the point is life. The LORD has done something staggering - He has come to dwell among His people, His tabernacle pitched in the middle of the camp - and holiness and defilement cannot occupy that nearness together. To carry uncleanness into the presence of the holy God is not a small breach; the chapter says plainly it is to risk death. So the separation is a mercy, a fence that keeps the people alive in the dangerous, wonderful proximity of God. The closing two verses sum up the whole law by naming everyone it has addressed: the man with an issue, the man with an emission, the woman in her separation, the woman with the prolonged flow, and the husband who lies with her (vv. 32-33). No one is left out, because no one is clean by default. The chapter ends exactly where it must - with a holy God in the midst of an unclean people, and a law that can keep them apart but cannot make them one. The deepest cleansing it points toward, it cannot itself supply.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Leviticus 15 with Rashi, Ramban, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for zob (the “issue” or flow that runs through the chapter), for niddah (v. 19, the woman set apart in her separation), and for the verb behind separate in verse 31, where the law's whole purpose is stated.
- Leviticus 15 ↔ Mark 5 · Matthew 9 · Hebrews 9 · 1 John 1Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Leviticus 15 to the rest of Scripture - the woman with a twelve-year issue of blood who touches Jesus and is made whole (Mark 5:25-34; Matt. 9:20-22) read against this chapter's laws of the spreading issue, and the offering that purifies the flesh read beside the blood of Christ that purges the conscience (Heb. 9:13-14).
- Leviticus 15 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Leviticus 15 - the meaning of the “running issue” in verses 2-3, the chain of contact-defilement through bed and seat and vessel in verses 4-12, the seven-day count and the two-bird offering of verses 13-15, and the summary statement of the law's purpose in verse 31.
Where this echoes in Scripture
When Any Man Hath a Running Issue
- Mark 5:25-34And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years... touched his garment... thy faith hath made thee whole.A living instance of this chapter’s law - the unclean woman whose touch, instead of defiling, is met with healing (vv. 2, 19).
- Leviticus 11:33And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them falleth... it is unclean; and ye shall break it.The same rule as verse 12 - the porous clay vessel that cannot be cleansed of defilement, only destroyed.
- Numbers 19:11He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.The same seven-day reckoning as verse 13 - the span of completion required before the unclean is cleansed.
- Leviticus 12:8And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons.The two-bird offering of verses 14-15 - the cheapest sacrifice, keeping the way back open to the poorest.
- Hebrews 9:13-14if the blood of bulls and of goats... sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ... purge your conscience.The offering that makes atonement for the issue (v. 15) read against the blood that cleanses more deeply than the flesh.
Unclean Until the Even
- Genesis 1:31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.The goodness of the physical creation underlying verses 16-18 - the body and its functions are part of what God called good.
- Exodus 19:14-15Moses... sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes... Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.The same washing and brief setting-apart before drawing near to God’s presence as in verses 16-18.
- Hebrews 13:4Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled.The dignity of marriage assumed in verse 18 - the marital act honored, never treated as shameful.
- 1 Timothy 4:4For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.The goodness of the body and its capacities that verses 16-18 quietly assume.
That They Die Not in Their Uncleanness
- Matthew 9:20-22a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years... If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole... thy faith hath made thee whole.The prolonged issue of verses 25-30 met by the One whose touch heals where the law could only quarantine.
- Hebrews 9:13-14the blood of bulls and of goats... sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ... purge your conscience.The offering for the issue (v. 30) that cleanses the flesh, set against the blood that cleanses the conscience.
- 1 John 1:7the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.The deeper cleansing the chapter points toward - a blood that purifies where washing and waiting cannot reach.
- Ezekiel 36:25Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness... will I cleanse you.The promised cleansing that answers verse 31 - God Himself washing the people the law could only set apart.
- Hebrews 10:19-22Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus... let us draw near.The access guarded in verse 31 - the tabernacle the unclean could not enter, now opened by the blood of Christ.