Sexual impurities
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron; he said,
2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them:
3 When a man has a discharge from his body, that discharge makes him unclean. The rules about his uncleanness are:
Whether his body allows the discharge to flow or whether it retains it, he is un clean.
4 Any bed the man lies on and any seat he sits on shall be unclean.
5 Any one who touches his bed must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.
6 Anyone who sits on a seat where the man has sat must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.
7 Anyone who touches the body of a man so affected must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.
8 If the sick man spits on someone who is clean, that person must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.
9 Any saddle the sick man travels on will be unclean.
10 All those who touch any object that may be under him will be unclean until evening. Anyone who picks up such an object must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.
11 All those whom the sick man touches with out washing his hands must wash their clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.
12 Any clay pot the sick man touches must be broken and any wooden utensil must be rinsed.
13 When the man suffering from a discharge is cured, he must allow seven days for his purification. He must wash his clothing and take a bath in running water and he will be clean.
14 On the eighth day he must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and come before Yahweh at the entrance to the Tent of Meet ing, and give them to the priest.
15 The priest is to offer a sacrifice for sin with one of them, and with the other a burnt offering. So the priest will perform the rite of atonement before Yahweh for the man’s discharge.
16 When a man has a seminal discharge, he must bathe his whole body with water and he shall be unclean until evening.
17 Any clothing or leather touched by a seminal discharge must be washed and it will be unclean until evening.
18 When a woman has slept with a man, both of them must take a bath and they will be unclean until evening.
19 When a woman has a discharge of blood, and blood flows from her body, this uncleanness of her monthly periods shall last for seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.
20 Any bed she lies on will be unclean; any seat she sits on will be unclean.
21 Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.
22 Anyone who touches any seat she has sat on must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.
23 If there is anything on the bed or the chair on which she sat, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.
24 If a man sleeps with a woman who is unclean because of her monthly period, he shall be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on will be unclean.
25 If a woman has a flow of blood for several days outside her period, or if her period is prolonged, during the time this flow lasts she shall be unclean as during her monthly periods.
26 Any bed she lies on during the time this flow lasts will be unclean as during her monthly period. Any seat she sits on will be unclean; as it would be during her monthly periods.
27 Anyone who touches them will be un clean; he must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.
28 When she is cured of her flow, she will let seven days pass; then she will be clean.
29 On the eighth day she is to take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
30 With one of them the priest is to offer a sacrifice for sin and with the other a burnt offering. This is the way in which the priest will perform the rite of atonement over her before Yahweh for the flow that made her unclean.
31 Make the sons of Israel aware of everything unclean, lest they die because of defiling the Tent of my presence among them.
32 Such is the law concerning a man with a discharge, anyone made unclean by a seminal discharge,
33 a woman unclean because of her monthly periods, a man or a woman with discharge, a man who sleeps with an unclean woman.”
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Comments Leviticus, Chapter 15
• 15.1 Among all primitive people we find a sacredness surrounding everything related to sex and birth. That is the origin, somehow, of these prescriptions about sexual purity and impurity. It would be wrong to interpret them as if sexual relations were impure in themselves; they are only so when the demands of genuine love are not respected.
The Canaanites, among whom the Israelites settled, yielded to the forces of nature which they thought to be divine, and sexual orgies accom panied all their religious feasts. For the Israel ites, however, the many purifications concerning sexual life reminded them that sex was part of human nature as God created it and that its drives had to be subject to the Law of God. The baptized person is guided by other considerations: 1 Cor 6 and 7.