Lévitique 15:2

2 Parlez aux enfants d'Israël, et dites-leur: Tout homme qui a un flux en sa chair, son flux le rend souillé.

Lévitique 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.

Lévitique 15:2 In-Context

1 L'Éternel parla aussi à Moïse et à Aaron, en disant:
2 Parlez aux enfants d'Israël, et dites-leur: Tout homme qui a un flux en sa chair, son flux le rend souillé.
3 C'est dans son flux que consiste sa souillure: que sa chair laisse couler son flux ou qu'elle le retienne, il est souillé.
4 Tout lit sur lequel couchera celui qui est atteint d'un flux sera souillé, et tout objet sur lequel il s'assiéra sera souillé.
5 Celui qui touchera son lit, lavera ses vêtements, se lavera dans l'eau, et sera souillé jusqu'au soir.
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.