Leviticus 15:2

2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ¹When any man has a discharge from his body, ^[a] his discharge is 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.

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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 body, his discharge is unclean.

3 And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is blocked up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness.

4 Every bed on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean.

5 And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

Cross References

• 1. 15:2 ch. 22:4; Num. 5:2; 2 Sam. 3:29

Footnotes

• [a] 15:2 Hebrew 'flesh'; also verse 3