What Does Leviticus 15:13 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The discharge ends before cleansing does: the verse separates cessation from completion, with living water marking the body’s return to cleanness.
THE MEANING
The flow has stopped, but cleanness is not instantaneous: a counted seven days, washed clothes, and immersion in living water complete the passage. The discharge is something that ends, not the final word over the person who bears it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The flow has ended, so nothing remains between its ending and cleanness.
THE ROOT
מִזּוֹבוֹ
mizovo
GROWS FROM
זוב
to flow, gush, or discharge
“issue” in this verse is mizovo. Hebrew places the one who flows and the flow itself in one word-family. The cleansing passage begins only after that flow has stopped.
ALSO GROWS
zav: A person marked by a flow or discharge
זָב
The person and the condition are named from the same root, but the condition can end.
zov: A flowing discharge
זוֹב
This is the issue that ceases before the counted cleansing begins.
יִטְהַר
yithar
GROWS FROM
טהר
to be clean or pure
“clean” in this verse is yithar. The root appears at the start of the passage, in its cleansing interval, and again at its close. Cleanness is both the condition reached and the state affirmed after the process.
ALSO GROWS
tahor: Clean, pure
טָהוֹר
Names the state toward which the verse’s washing moves.
taharah: Cleansing, purification
טָהֳרָה
Names the interval that follows the end of the discharge.
מַיִם חַיִּים
mayim chayyim
GROWS FROM
חיה
to live, remain alive
“running water” in this verse is mayim chayyim. The Hebrew names these as living waters; the water’s movement belongs to the language of life. Cleansing takes place in water joined to life.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Alive, living
חַי
Names the quality carried by the water in this phrase.
chayyim: Life, living
חַיִּים
Makes the life-language in “living waters” visible.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing and restored life repeatedly take the form of water that washes or flows.
And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.THE THREAD
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.The same Hebrew root טהר (taher, be clean or pure) appears in both verses. Here cleanness follows the measured washing after a flow ends; Ezekiel places that same root around the image of clean water, revealing purification as both a state and an action.
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