Leviticus 15:1-33
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying,
2 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.
3 And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness.
4 Every bed, whereon he lieth that hath the issue, is unclean: and every thing,a whereon he sitteth, shall be unclean.
5 And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
6 And he that sitteth on any thing whereon he sat that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
7 And he that toucheth the flesh of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
8 And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean; then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
9 And what saddle soever he rideth upon that hath the issue shall be unclean.
10 And whosoever toucheth any thing that was under him shall be unclean until the even: and he that beareth any of those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
11 And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
12 And the vessel of earth, that he toucheth which hath the issue, shall be broken: and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.
13 And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.
14 And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest:
15 And the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD for his issue.
16 And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.
17 And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even.
18 The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.
19 And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even.
20 And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.
21 And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
22 And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
23 And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even.
24 And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean.
25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean.
26 Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation.
27 And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
28 But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.
29 And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
30 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her before the LORD for the issue of her uncleanness.
31 Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.
32 This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled therewith;
33 And of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that hath an issue, of the man, and of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is unclean.
Now as we get into the fifteenth chapter God deals with sort of a boil kind of a thing or any breaking out on your body, any kind of a running sore that a person might have. That he is unclean and the whole thing has now to do with hygienic principles. How that anything that he wears that touches it is unclean. And the various washing processes that they need to go through until this running sore, sort of a staff infection, is healed completely. It is interesting that these laws of cleanliness, these laws of washing were so important for good hygiene.
Up until the last one hundred years or so, the hospitals did not always follow good practices of hygiene. The doctors didn't really wash that much. In fact, there used to be sort of a feeling that the bloodier that the doctor's clothes were, really, it was sort of a symbol of the efficiency and the effectiveness of the man. And so they would go from one patient to another without washing, from one childbirth delivery to another without washing, and from one operation to another without washing. Coming in all bloodied and everything and just moving from one to another and not really following a good routine of washing.
Now one of the first doctors to recommend that they really start a thorough washing procedure almost lost his license because he dared to suggest such a thing. And he was really looked down on in the medical field for quite some time until he was able to prove statistically that the death rate among his patients, especially those mothers bearing children, was much less than all of the rest by a dramatic amount because of the careful practices of washing. So now this is up until just about a hundred years ago. There wasn't nearly the care in washing; and yet, had they read the law that God gave, they would have known the necessity and the value of the washing and of the cleaning.
Now the Bible doesn't say that cleanliness is next to Godliness in those words. Those words are found in the Koran, but not in the Bible. But yet surely it is implied that cleanliness is important. Physical cleanliness is important. That is certainly something that is taught in the law. Though it is not necessarily related to Godliness, because they are whole different areas. But yet just to your own physical well being, cleanliness is very important to stop the spread of disease and for just good health. Cleanliness is important indeed.
And so as you get into the fifteenth chapter, and you're dealing with these issues and so forth that are coming forth sort of a staff infection. He goes through the various cleansing processes and the way that they are to be cleansed. The number of days and so forth and then also just dealing with basically with cleanliness.
And then coming to the woman and dealing with her in her menstrual periods and the fact that during this period she was ceremonially unclean. That anyone that touched the bed where she slept was also unclean, would have to wash and so forth. And then after the menstrual period would have to wait for seven days in separation and then she would bring on the eighth day two young pigeons or turtle doves to the priest for sacrifices of a sin offering and a burnt offering and then she was then clean and could then resume physical relations with her husband once more. It is interesting, this is no doubt there was such great fertility among these people. Because that is when they were able to come again with physical relationships was about the time of ovulation, and so it made for a rapid increase in population.
And thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, and when they defile my tabernacle that is among them (Leviticus 15:31).
Now the uncleanness, it is important that we realize that this was a ceremonial uncleanness and during the period of this uncleanness, they were not allowed to come to the tabernacle of God. If you had this running sore, you were not allowed to come to the tabernacle of God until you had gone through the seven days of washing. Washing your clothes, washing your body and everything else, and after the running sores had healed, had scabbed over and healed, and then you could come. But it was ceremonially unclean. You weren't allowed in the tabernacle of God during this period of uncleanness. "