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.
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.
- BSB “Say to the Israelites, ‘When any man has a bodily discharge, the discharge 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 5:2Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead:
- Lev 22:4What man soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath a running issue; he shall not eat of the holy things, until he be clean. And whoso toucheth any thing that is unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed goeth from him;
- 2 Sam 3:29Let it rest on the head of Joab, and on all his father’s house; and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth on the sword, or that lacketh bread.
- Matt 9:20And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:
- Ps 78:5For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
- Luke 8:43And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
- Neh 9:13–14Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:
- Mark 5:25And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
- Mark 7:20–23And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
- Ps 147:19–20He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
- Rom 3:2Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
- Deut 4:7–8For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
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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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