Leviticus 15:16

16 "If a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body. He will be unclean until evening.

Leviticus 15:16 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 15:16

And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him
Not in lawful cohabitation, nor voluntarily, but involuntarily, as Aben Ezra observes; not through any disorder, which came by an accident, or in any criminal way, but through a dream, or any lustful imagination; what is commonly called nocturnal pollution ^F3; then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the
even;
and so the Egyptian priests, when it happened that they were defiled by a dream, they immediately purified themselves in a laver ^F4 so the Jewish priests did when the like happened to them asleep in the temple ^F5; see ( Deuteronomy 23:10 Deuteronomy 23:11 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 "----& noctem flumine purgas." Pers. Satyr. 2.
F4 Chaeremon. apud Porphyr. de Abstinentia, l. 4. c. 7.
F5 Misn. Tamid. c. 1. sect. 1.

Leviticus 15:16 In-Context

14 On the eighth day he must take two mourning doves or two pigeons and come into the LORD's presence at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He will give these birds to the priest.

15 The priest will sacrifice one as an offering for sin and the other as a burnt offering. So in the LORD's presence, the priest will make peace with the LORD for the man who had a discharge.

16 "If a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body. He will be unclean until evening.

17 Any clothes or any leather with semen on it must be washed. It will be unclean until evening.

18 "When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman and has an emission of semen, they must wash themselves. They will be unclean until evening.