Leviticus 15:16

16 And the man, when his seed shall go forth from him, then shall wash all his flesh in water and be unclean until the evening.

Leviticus 15:16 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 15:16

And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him
Not in lawful cohabitation, nor voluntarily, but involuntarily, as Aben Ezra observes; not through any disorder, which came by an accident, or in any criminal way, but through a dream, or any lustful imagination; what is commonly called nocturnal pollution ^F3; then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the
even;
and so the Egyptian priests, when it happened that they were defiled by a dream, they immediately purified themselves in a laver ^F4 so the Jewish priests did when the like happened to them asleep in the temple ^F5; see ( Deuteronomy 23:10 Deuteronomy 23:11 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 "----& noctem flumine purgas." Pers. Satyr. 2.
F4 Chaeremon. apud Porphyr. de Abstinentia, l. 4. c. 7.
F5 Misn. Tamid. c. 1. sect. 1.

Leviticus 15:16 In-Context

14 And on the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and come before the LORD unto the door of the tabernacle of the testimony and give them unto the priest;

15 and the priest shall offer the one as sin and the other as a burnt offering; and the priest shall reconcile him from his issue before the LORD.

16 And the man, when his seed shall go forth from him, then shall wash all his flesh in water and be unclean until the evening.

17 And every garment and every skin upon which the seed of a man has come shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening.

18 The woman also with whom the man shall have sexual contact with seed, they shall both bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening.