“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. If a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her menstrual period.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a woman conceives, and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her monthly period she shall be unclean.
- KJV Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
- BSB “Say to the Israelites, ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be unclean for seven days, as she is during the days of her menstruation.
- NKJV “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean.
- NASB “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: ‘When a woman gives birth and delivers a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days; as she is in the days of her menstruation, she shall be unclean.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
After bearing a son, a woman is ceremonially unclean seven days. The uncleanness is ritual, connected to the flow of blood, not moral guilt.
Overview
A woman who gives birth to a son is unclean for seven days, like the days of her monthly period. This uncleanness concerns ritual fitness for worship, not sin in bearing children, which Scripture honors as a blessing. The association of birth with blood and uncleanness reflects life in a fallen world, where even joyful events are touched by the need for cleansing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Luke 2:22When the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord
- Lev 15:19“‘If a woman has a discharge, and her discharge in her flesh is blood, she shall be in her impurity seven days: and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
- Job 15:14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
- Rom 5:12–19Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
- Job 25:4How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
- Lev 18:19“‘You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is impure by her uncleanness.
- Job 14:4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
- Gen 1:28God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
- Gen 3:16To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
- Ps 51:5Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 12:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.