15:1–2a The Lord’s instruction is to both Moses and Aaron, as is found with other teaching on impurity (11:1; 13:1; 14:33). Priests are responsible for teaching the people as well as protecting the boundaries of the sanctuary from all uncleanness (15:31).

15:2b The first case is treated in the most extensive detail and informs the ones to follow. Israelites must be conscious of their bodily purity: any male with an unusual genital discharge is ritually unclean. Because bodily discharges are a private matter, every Israelite must learn to make distinctions between unclean and clean ritual states—to live by them and perform the required washings and sacrificial offerings outlined below.

15:3 More details now follow. A man with a genital discharge that is either flowing as clear liquid or creating blockage by pus is unclean. Commentators tend to associate these symptoms with gonorrhea, but it is not crucial to identify the precise medical disease; multiple urinary and genital infections causing long-term discharge are included within this broad description. The burden of the passage is not to diagnose but rather to communicate the procedure for cleansing and protecting others in the community from secondary impurity.

For the individual a state of ritual impurity translates to not being permitted in the sanctuary nor being able to eat food sacrificed on the altar (7:20–21; 22:3–7). For the community it means taking care not to become polluted through objects the impure person has touched—but, if so, to take the necessary steps of cleansing (5:3).

15:4–6 An abnormal discharge classifies as a major impurity. As a result, an object the diseased person has touched can now communicate impurity to others. Thus anyone who comes into contact with the bedding or an object on which a man with a discharge has sat himself contracts impurity. That person, however, has only a minor impurity, which can be resolved by laundering clothes, bathing in water, and waiting until the evening.

15:7–8 Direct contact with the sufferer initiated by someone who is clean renders that person unclean. A person with an abnormal genital discharge can intentionally contaminate another person by spitting on him.

15:9–10 Because the man with the discharge has a major impurity, he is contagious and makes those objects directly under him unclean, such as a seat or saddle, so that anyone who comes into contact with such an object will also become unclean. The same is the case for menstrual blood (vv. 20–23). Impurity is communicated through touch (vv. 7, 10, 11, 12, 19, 21, 22, 23, 27), sitting (vv. 4, 6, 20, 22, 23), or lying (vv. 4, 20, 26). This means that a long-term discharge will impact daily living, since a man will be aware of what he touches or where he sits while at home or at work farming and tending livestock and will be conscious to maintain distance from others if he is not to convey his impurity.

15:11–12 The diseased man must be diligent to wash his hands lest he convey impurity to those he touches (cf. Mark 7:1–4). The vessels he handles can also be affected if he does not wash his hands: ceramic pots, which are porous, are broken and put out of use, but wood can be washed and reused (Lev. 11:32–33). Priests serving in the tent of meeting regularly follow these protocols to maintain the holiness required in the Lord’s dwelling (Ex. 30:18–20; Lev. 6:27–28). In NT times tableware and storage vessels will be crafted out of stone so as not to be contaminated (John 2:6).

15:13–15 After the infection has healed and the man no longer has a discharge he must wait a full seven days, a period of time that marks passage from one ritual state to another. He then must wash the clothes that have touched his body and bathe in “fresh water.” The expression in Hebrew is “living water,” meaning it comes from a flowing spring or running river and is not stagnant (14:5–6).178 Flowing, living water has power to cleanse the abnormal flow without itself becoming contaminated.

On the eighth day that marks the beginning of a new status the man healed of the abnormal discharge offers a sacrifice of two birds, either turtledoves or pigeons. The two offerings work together—the sin (purification) offering cleanses from impurity and the burnt offering restores fellowship through sacrifice. With this act of worship he is once more welcomed into the holiness of God’s presence through the priestly mediation of atonement.

15:16–17 A man who has a nocturnal emission not associated with sexual intercourse becomes ritually unclean, as does any clothing and bedding touched by his semen. He washes his clothes and his body and is clean by that evening. Although this is a normal condition, it is incompatible with sacred space and holy offerings.

15:18 Both husband and wife become ritually unclean after sexual intercourse and must bathe. It strikes us as unexpected that the couple becomes unclean through a union the Lord has blessed so that his image bearers may “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28). Although sexual intimacy between a husband and wife is honored in Scripture, it produces a temporary restriction on access to the sanctuary. Sexuality is strictly distanced from the realm of the holy, perhaps to communicate that worship of Israel’s God must not be equated to the fertility cults of Canaan. Sexuality and the sacred are incompatible in this way.

When all Israel was to meet with the Lord to ratify the Sinai covenant, it was instructed to wash its clothes and abstain from sexual relations (Ex. 19:10, 15). The congregation consecrated itself to prepare for an encounter with the Lord (while there was no physical structure, Sinai itself was a sanctuary).179

15:19 A woman’s menstrual cycle puts her in a state of ritual impurity for seven days (even if her blood flow ends sooner). Israelite women would have had fewer menstrual cycles in their lifetime than is typical today since marrying at an early age, frequent pregnancies, and breastfeeding till the age of three affected the frequency.

Anyone who touches the menstruant contracts a minor impurity and is unclean for the rest of the day. As with the impurity of childbirth (12:2–5), this does not hinder others in the household from sharing daily life beside her but only makes them conscious that, should they touch her, they must stay away from holy things. For most Israelites only special occasions will bring them to the tabernacle (later, the temple), such as making an offering, fulfilling a vow, or celebrating the pilgrimage festivals (Deut. 16:1–17).

Bathing at the end of the seven-day period is not mentioned but is implied, since it is required for an equivalent state of impurity (Lev. 15:16–17). Other passages are suggestive. Bathsheba was “purifying herself from her uncleanness” (2 Sam. 11:4) when David saw her from his palace. Her bathing signaled the end of the purification period after her monthly cycle. The detail is supplied in the narrative to make clear that the child she conceived could only have been David’s.

15:20–23 Anything on which the woman lies or sits has the potential to convey her impurity to others (cf. Gen. 31:34–35, where Rachel uses this excuse to conceal household idols in her saddle). Should someone come into contact with her bedding or seat, that person must wash his or her clothes and body and wait until evening to be clean. It is probably to be understood that household items she touches contract impurity (Lev. 15:11–12).

Ritual separation does not make for social isolation. There is no indication that a menstruating woman is isolated from her household (unlike the leper, who must dwell outside the camp); she is restricted only from appearing at the sanctuary or participating in a holy meal. No sacrifices are required at the end of her cycle.

15:24 If a husband and wife are sexually intimate and do not realize that the woman’s period has begun, he becomes unclean like her for seven days and likewise conveys her impurity. Were he simply to touch his wife, it would make him unclean for only the day. Intercourse, however, causes him to share his wife’s impurity because sexual intimacy enacts their one-flesh union (Gen. 2:24). Normally sexual intercourse makes them both unclean for a day (Lev. 15:18), the same duration as that for a normal seminal emission (v. 16). If his semen touches her, she becomes unclean like him; if her blood touches him, he becomes unclean like her. Deliberate intercourse while she is menstruating is prohibited (18:19).

15:25–27 A woman with irregular vaginal or prolonged bleeding beyond her regular period remains ritually unclean and unfit to approach the Lord at the sanctuary. The rules of impurity are the same as those for her regular menstrual flow. She will have to avoid the touch of others and be aware of the ways her impurity may impact others. She must be careful where she sits and where she lies. The lives of her family and community will have to adjust to her prolonged discharge.

15:28–30 When the woman is healed of her abnormal blood flow, she counts off seven days and follows the same purification rite as that of a male with abnormal emission (vv. 13–15). A long-term discharge requires sacrifice to be restored to purity, unlike the regular normal impurity of menstruation.

15:31–33 These laws are given to protect God’s people so they do not approach him in their uncleanness and die. The call for Israel to be separate from its uncleanness points to its priestly vocation among the nations. This separation is phrased in a unique way based on the Hebrew word nazir, from which the word Nazirite is derived. A Nazirite takes a vow to consecrate himself to the Lord by separating from wine and separating unto the Lord (Num. 6:2–3). Israel’s separation from ritual impurity enables its consecration to the Lord and conformity with his holy dwelling.

Because the Lord is among his people, he is pushing life in the direction of bodily purity and sanctification. Even though bodily impurity is part of the normal course of life, the Lord provides a way for bodies to be made compatible with the sanctuary and enabled to stand in his presence. Aligning the body according to the ritual purity of the sanctuary anticipates how one day all believers will become sanctified to be as the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).