What Does Leviticus 15:19 Mean in the King James?
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.
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 Hebrew root for “touch” also names a strike or affliction, so contact here carries a time-bounded consequence.
THE MEANING
This verse gives menstrual bleeding a defined span: seven days. Contact across that boundary carries a temporary state of uncleanness until evening. The text names a bodily and ritual condition, not a moral accusation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that bodily bleeding itself means moral failure: the verse describes a bounded condition without accusing the woman of wrongdoing.
THE ROOT
הַנֹּגֵעַ
hannōgēaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
to touch, reach, or strike
The Hebrew root behind “toucheth” also forms נֶגַע (negaʿ), meaning a stroke, plague, or affliction. That does not make this contact a disease; it reveals how the root can link reaching another with an impact that changes a body’s state.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaʿ: to touch, reach, or strike
נָגַע
This verb is the root’s basic action: contact that reaches another person or thing.
negaʿ: a stroke, plague, or affliction
נֶגַע
This noun shares the root’s consonants and carries the sense of an impact or condition that affects a body.
יִטְמָא
yiṭmāʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
to be or become ritually unclean
“be unclean” in this verse is yiṭmāʾ. The verse uses a verb from the same root that names both the unclean state and impurity itself. Here that state has a stated limit: it lasts until evening, rather than marking a moral identity.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmēʾ: unclean; ritually impure
טָמֵא
This adjective names a person or thing in the state described by the verse’s verb.
ṭumʾāh: impurity; uncleanness
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the condition itself, linking the temporary status to a shared root rather than to a judgment of character.
THE PATTERN
Contact at the boundary of a bodily condition can carry ritual status or mark a change in the body’s state.
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.And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.THE THREAD
And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.Both verses use נגע (nāgaʿ) for touch and name evening as the boundary of uncleanness. Leviticus describes contact with the woman’s bleeding; Numbers makes explicit how the status can pass through contact.
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