Lévitique 15:18

18 Et quand une femme et un homme coucheront et auront commerce ensemble, ils se laveront dans l'eau, et seront souillés jusqu'au soir.

Lévitique 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.

Lévitique 15:18 In-Context

16 L'homme qui aura une pollution lavera dans l'eau toute sa chair, et sera souillé jusqu'au soir.
17 Et tout vêtement, et toute peau, qui en seront atteints, seront lavés dans l'eau, et seront souillés jusqu'au soir.
18 Et quand une femme et un homme coucheront et auront commerce ensemble, ils se laveront dans l'eau, et seront souillés jusqu'au soir.
19 Et quand une femme aura un flux, un flux de sang en sa chair, elle sera dans son impureté pendant sept jours; quiconque la touchera sera souillé jusqu'au soir.
20 Tout objet sur lequel elle aura couché pendant son impureté sera souillé; et toute chose sur laquelle elle se sera assise sera souillée.
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.