“Say to the Israelites, ‘When any man has a bodily discharge, the discharge is unclean.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, because of his discharge he is unclean.
- KJV Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.
- NKJV “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean.
- NASB “Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean.
- NLT “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. “Any man who has a bodily discharge is ceremonially 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
A man with an abnormal bodily discharge is declared ceremonially unclean. This teaches that even ordinary human conditions could render one unfit to approach the holy God.
Overview
God instructs that a man with a chronic or abnormal discharge (likely an infection) is unclean. These laws were not about sin or hygiene primarily, but about ritual fitness to draw near to a holy God whose tabernacle stood among them. By marking such conditions as defiling, the LORD impressed on Israel the pervasiveness of impurity and the constant need for cleansing fulfilled in the gospel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Num 5:2“Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
- Lev 22:4If a descendant of Aaron has a skin disease or a discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything defiled by a corpse or by a man who has an emission of semen,
- 2 Sam 3:29May it whirl over the heads of Joab and the entire house of his father, and may the house of Joab never be without one having a discharge or skin disease, or one who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or lacks food.”
- Matt 9:20Suddenly a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak.
- Ps 78:5For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children,
- Luke 8:43including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her.
- Neh 9:13–14You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments.
- Mark 5:25And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years.
- Mark 7:20–23He continued: “What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him.
- Ps 147:19–20He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and judgments to Israel.
- Rom 3:2Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
- Deut 4:7–8For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him?
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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 15:2 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
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