Leviticus 12:2-6

2 "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: 'When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, ¹ as in the days of her menstruation * she shall be unclean.

3 'On ²the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

4 'Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three * days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed.

5 'But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, as in her menstruation; and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for sixty-six days.

6 '³When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove ⁴for a sin offering.

Leviticus 12:2-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 12

This chapter treats of the purification of a new mother, the time of whose purification for a man child was forty days, and for a maid child eighty, Le 12:1-5 at the close of which she was to bring her offerings to the priests, to make atonement for her, Le 12:6-8.

Cross References

• 1. Leviticus 15:19; Leviticus 18:19
• 2. Genesis 17:12; Luke 1:59; Luke 2:21
• 3. Luke 2:22
• 4. Leviticus 5:7

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "produces seed"
• [b]. Lit "the impurity of her sickness"
• [c]. Lit "impurity"