2. from his member. The primary meaning of the noun basar is “flesh.” In the preceding chapter, it was used as a synecdoche for “body.” Here it is an obvious euphemism for the sexual organ.

3. running with its flux or . . . stopped up with its flux. Since the very term “flux” (zov, the same root manifested in “a land flowing with milk and honey”) suggests some sort of fluid discharge, there is a need to stipulate that this category of ailment also includes cases in which the discharge is scanty, slow, and viscous (“stopped up”).

4. Any bedding. As in the laws pertaining to skin disease and mildew, the concern is not a medical one of contagion but a ritual one of contamination (tumʾah, “impurity” or “uncleanness”). The condition of ritual uncleanness could be conveyed through secondary contact and, in some instances, even tertiary contact. Here, a substance merely touched by the man with a genital discharge does not contaminate, nor does he convey uncleanness if he touches someone after rinsing his hands, but contact with a substance that has been pressed against his genital area—bedding or a seat—does transmit the impurity. In all this, the overriding preoccupation of the Priestly writers is to protect the ritual purity of their special domain, the sanctuary, by instituting this system of sequestering and ablution in order to prevent the spread of the contamination. In the pagan world, such contamination was imagined to be imparted by demonic forces. Milgrom is certainly right in noting that the monotheistic perspective of Leviticus precludes the notion of the demonic from the conception of impurity. His contention, however, that the opposing forces of life and death manifested in purity and impurity are the consequence of man’s moral actions is apologetic, for it is clear that certain pathological conditions—not presented here as a punishment for sin—and even certain normal physiological processes were thought to be intrinsic sources of impurity.

5. bathe. The Hebrew verb raḥats can mean simply “to wash,” but in these laws it is evident that the whole body is to be immersed.

7. he who touches the body. Again, the noun used means “flesh,” but the case of touching the person’s genitals is an unlikely one, so the term should be construed here as a synecdoche for body. Abraham ibn Ezra succinctly observes, “Whatever member or limb it may be.”

9. saddle. The Hebrew merkav refers to anything a person mounted on an animal would sit on, and so includes saddlecloths, pillows, and the like.

10. these things. The Hebrew says, rather tersely, “them,” referring to anything that would have been under the mounted person.

12. earthen . . . wooden vessel. Milgrom suggests that the earthen vessel is to be broken because such implements were cheap, whereas the more costly carved wooden vessel was to be rescued for continued use through rinsing.

15. offense offering. As elsewhere, the context makes clear that the Hebrew ḥatʾat does not mean “sin offering,” for no sin has been committed. But being the bearer of a source of contamination that could defile the sanctuary is at least a potential offense, in a strictly mechanical sense, to the sacred zone of the deity.

16. an emission of seed. The Hebrew for “emission,” shikhvah, is linked to the verb for “lying down” shakhav, but may derive from what is “laid down” as the result of a spurt or shower of anything liquid, as in the expression shikhvat tal, “layer of dew” (Exodus 16:13).

18. And a woman whom a man has bedded with emission of seed. Sexual intercourse with ejaculation renders both parties temporarily impure in regard to participation in the cult—a widespread idea in the ancient world. Hence the Israelites are enjoined to refrain from sexual relations for three days before the Sinai epiphany.

19. her flux being from her genitals. Again, the noun used is basar. The translation follows ibn Ezra in understanding this as a euphemism for the vagina and uterus, which of course are the locus of the menstrual flow. The notion that the menstruant is a source of contamination to be strenuously avoided is shared by many ancient cultures. Even if the restrictions regarding menstruation are less extreme here than in some other cultures, the association of this natural female function with uncleanness is one that has had problematic social and perhaps psychological consequences continuing through post-biblical Judaism.

her menstruation. Though the noun nidah is conventionally derived from the verbal stem n-d-h, which means “to banish,” Levine proposes that it is cognate with n-z-h, “to sprinkle” or “to spatter,” thus referring explicitly to the menstrual flow.

24. her menstruation shall be upon him. Later, there will be a stipulation of punishment for this act. Here, the man cohabiting with the menstruant becomes a kind of male menstruant, conveying ritual impurity precisely as the menstruating woman does and subject to the same process of purification.