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Leviticus

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Chapter 15

1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. 3 Now this is his uncleanness in regard to his discharge—whether his body secretes his discharge or blocks his discharge, he is unclean. All the days that his body has a discharge or his body blocks his discharge, this is his uncleanness. 4 “‘Any bed the man with a discharge lies on will be unclean, and any furniture he sits on will be unclean. 5 Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 6 The one who sits on the furniture the man with a discharge sits on must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 7 The one who touches the body of the man with a discharge must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 8 If the man with a discharge spits on a person who is ceremonially clean, that person must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 9 Any means of riding that the man with a discharge rides on will be unclean. 10 Anyone who touches anything that was under him will be unclean until evening, and the one who carries those items must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 11 Anyone whom the man with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 12 A clay vessel which the man with the discharge touches must be broken, and any wooden utensil must be rinsed in water. 13 “‘When the man with the discharge becomes clean from his discharge, he is to count off for himself seven days for his purification, and he must wash his clothes, bathe in fresh water, and be clean. 14 Then on the eighth day he is to take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and he is to present himself before the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent and give them to the priest, 15 and the priest is to make one of them a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. So the priest is to make atonement for him before the Lord for his discharge. 16 “‘When a man has a seminal emission, he must bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until evening, 17 and he must wash in water any clothing or leather that has semen on it, and it will be unclean until evening. 18 As for a woman whom a man goes to bed with, then has a seminal emission, they must bathe in water and be unclean until evening. 19 “‘When a woman has a discharge and her discharge is blood from her body, she is to be in her menstruation seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.⁠ 20 Anything she lies on during her menstruation will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21 Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 22 Anyone who touches any furniture she sits on must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 23 If there is something on the bed or on the furniture she sits on, when he touches it, he will be unclean until evening, 24 and if a man actually goes to bed with her so that her menstrual impurity touches him, then he will be unclean seven days, and any bed he lies on will be unclean. 25 “‘When a woman’s discharge of blood flows many days not at the time of her menstruation, or if it flows beyond the time of her menstruation, all the days of her discharge of impurity will be like the days of her menstruation—she is unclean. 26 Any bed she lies on all the days of her discharge will be to her like the bed of her menstruation, any furniture she sits on will be unclean like the impurity of her menstruation, 27 and anyone who touches them will be unclean, and he must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 28 “‘If she becomes clean from her discharge, then she is to count off for herself seven days, and afterward she will be clean. 29 Then on the eighth day she must take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and she must bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, 30 and the priest is to make one a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. So the priest is to make atonement for her before the Lord from her discharge of impurity. 31 “‘Thus you are to set the Israelites apart from their impurity so that they do not die in their impurity by defiling my tabernacle which is in their midst.⁠ 32 This is the law for the one with a discharge: for the one who has a seminal emission and becomes unclean by it, 33 for the one who is sick in her menstruation, for the one with a discharge, whether male or female, and for a man who goes to bed with an unclean woman.’”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 15:19 and 2 Samuel 11:4

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

2 Samuel 11 notes that Bathsheba was bathing after her menstrual period, echoing Leviticus 15. This detail deepens David’s failure, showing that he not only abuses his power but also ignores commandments meant to protect her purity and dignity.

Passages

Leviticus 15:19

Hebrew Bible
17 and he must wash in water any clothing or leather that has semen on it, and it will be unclean until evening. 18 As for a woman whom a man goes to bed with, then has a seminal emission, they must bathe in water and be unclean until evening. 19 “‘When a woman has a discharge and her discharge is blood from her body, she is to be in her menstruation seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. 20 Anything she lies on during her menstruation will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21 Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

2 Samuel 11:4

Hebrew Bible
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. 3 So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 David sent some messengers to get her. She came to him and he went to bed with her. (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) Then she returned to her home. 5 The woman conceived and then sent word to David saying, “I’m pregnant.” 6 So David sent a message to Joab that said, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Samuel

References

"... The assumption is that because the laws of impurity constitute a meaningful system, the rules for each type of impurity have implications for the other types. For example, for the parturient the consequences of impurity are spelled out: she is not to have contact with consecrated things or to enter the sanctuary (Leviticus 12:4). These consequences are not mentioned for the other types of impurity in the Torah, but with other readers, ancient and modern, I assume that they apply to them as well. But the applicability of rules for one type of impurity to other types is not always clear. Leviticus 15 decrees laundering and bathing for the man with a flow at the end of the period of purification (Leviticus 15:13) and bathing for a man who has had a seminal emission and for a woman who has had contact with semen in sexual relations (Leviticus 15:16, 18). Yet it mentions neither bathing nor laundering for the menstruant or the woman with abnormal flow. Still P surely assumes such bathing and laundering. Its failure to specify them may reflect its confidence that the analogy with the man with a flow and the man with a seminal emission would be obvious, and there is evidence elsewhere in the Bible, outside of P, for the practice of bathing after menstruation (2 Samuel 11:4). But if the silence of Leviticus 15 is due to its already having laid out the rules in the first portion of the chapter, why does its discussion of the woman with an abnormal flow repeat the requirement of sacrifice (Leviticus 15:29–30) in language virtually identical to that it uses for the man with a flow (Leviticus 15:14–15)? The assumption that P’s laws form a system by no means explains all aspects of their literary expression ..."
Martha Himmelfarb, Between Temple and Torah: Essays on Priests, Scribes, and Visionaries in the Second Temple Period and Beyond (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), 140.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 15:19 and 2 Samuel 11:4

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