Leviticus 15:2

2 Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When any man has a discharge from his member, his discharge makes him ceremonially unclean.

Leviticus 15:2 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 15:2

Speak unto the children of Israel
From whence we learn, says the above mentioned writer, that these uncleannesses were only usual among the children of Israel, not among the Gentiles; that is, the laws respecting them were only binding on the one, and not on the other F19:

and say unto them, when any man;
in the Hebrew text it is, "a man, a man", which the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases, a young man, and an old man:

hath a running issue out of his flesh;
what physicians call a "gonorrhoea", and we, as in the margin of our Bibles, "the running of the reins":

[because of] his issue, he [is] unclean;
in a ceremonial sense, though it arises from a natural cause; but if not from any criminal one, from a debauch, but from a strain, or some such like thing, the man was not defiled, otherwise he was; the Targum of Jonathan is,

``if he sees it three times he is unclean;''

so the Misnah F20.


FOOTNOTES:

F19 So Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Edaiot, c. 5. sect. 1.
F20 Zabim, c. 1. sect. 1. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Leviticus 15:2 In-Context

1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
2 Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When any man has a discharge from his member, his discharge makes him ceremonially unclean.
3 The uncleanness of his discharge is this: whether his member flows with his discharge, or his member is stopped from discharging, it is uncleanness for him.
4 Every bed on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean; and everything on which he sits shall be unclean.
5 Anyone who touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening.

Footnotes 1

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.