Leviticus 15:2

2 `Speak unto the sons of Israel, and ye have said unto them, When there is an issue out of the flesh of any man, [for] his issue he [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.


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 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying,
2 `Speak unto the sons of Israel, and ye have said unto them, When there is an issue out of the flesh of any man, [for] his issue he [is] unclean;
3 and this is his uncleanness in his issue -- his flesh hath run with his issue, or his flesh hath stopped from his issue; it [is] his uncleanness.
4 `All the bed on which he lieth who hath the issue is unclean, and all the vessel on which he sitteth is unclean;
5 and any one who cometh against his bed doth wash his garments, and hath bathed with water, and been unclean till the evening.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.