Leviticus 15:16

16 “Whenever a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his entire body in water, and he will remain ceremonially unclean until the next 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 On the eighth day he must get two turtledoves or two young pigeons and come before the LORD at the entrance of the Tabernacle and give his offerings to the priest.

15 The priest will offer one bird for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. Through this process, the priest will purify the man before the LORD for his discharge.

16 “Whenever a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his entire body in water, and he will remain ceremonially unclean until the next evening.

17 Any clothing or leather with semen on it must be washed in water, and it will remain unclean until evening.

18 After a man and a woman have sexual intercourse, they must each bathe in water, and they will remain unclean until the next evening.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew until evening; also in 15:18 .