Leviticus 15:18

18 If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and 1be unclean until the evening.

Leviticus 15:18 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 15:18

The woman also with whom man shall lie [with] seed of
copulation
It seems to respect any congress of a man and woman, whether in fornication or adultery, or lawful marriage, and particularly the latter; for though marriage is honourable and holy, and carnal copulation in itself lawful, yet such is the sinfulness of nature, that as no act is performed without pollution, so neither that of generation, and by which the corruption of nature is propagated, and therefore required a ceremonial cleansing: they shall [both] bathe [themselves] in water, and be unclean until
the even;
so Herodotus F6 reports, that as often as a Babylonian man lay with his wife, he had used to sit by consecrated incense, and the woman did the same: and in the morning they were both washed, and did not touch any vessel before they had washed themselves; and he says the Arabians did the like: and the same historian relates F7 of the Egyptians, that they never go into their temples from their wives unwashed; see ( Exodus 19:15 ) ( 1 Samuel 21:4 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 198.
F7 Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 64.

Leviticus 15:18 In-Context

16 "If a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening.
17 And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening.
18 If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening.
19 "When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
20 And everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean.

Cross References 1

  • 1. [1 Samuel 21:4]
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