“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, his 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.
- BSB “Say to the Israelites, ‘When any man has a bodily discharge, the 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 children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has an issue, and whoever is unclean by the dead.
- Lev 22:4“‘Whoever of the offspring of Aaron is a leper or has an issue; he shall not eat of the holy things, until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean by the dead, or a man whose offspring goes from him;
- 2 Sam 3:29Let it fall on the head of Joab, and on all his father’s house. Let there not fail from the house of Joab one who has an issue, or who is a leper, or who leans on a staff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread.”
- Matt 9:20Behold, a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years came behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment;
- Ps 78:5For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
- Luke 8:43A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any,
- Neh 9:13–14“You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,
- Mark 5:25A certain woman, who had an issue of blood for twelve years,
- Mark 7:20–23He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.
- Ps 147:19–20He shows his word to Jacob; his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
- Rom 3:2Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God.
- Deut 4:7–8For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our God is 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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