Leviticus 15:16

16 " 'And if an emission of semen goes out from anyone, then he shall wash all of his body with water, and he shall be unclean until the 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 Then on the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two {young doves}, and he shall come {before} Yahweh at [the] tent of assembly's entrance, and he shall give them to the priest.

15 And the priest shall {sacrifice} one [as] a sin offering and {the other} [as] a burnt offering, and so the priest shall make atonement for him {before} Yahweh from his body fluid discharge.

16 " 'And if an emission of semen goes out from anyone, then he shall wash all of his body with water, and he shall be unclean until the evening.

17 And any garment and anything leather on which is an emission of semen shall be washed with water, and it shall be unclean until the evening.

18 If [there is] a woman with whom a man lies down [and there is] an emission of semen, then they shall wash [themselves] with water, and they shall be unclean until the evening.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "and"