What Does Leviticus 15:2 Mean in the King James?
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.
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 verse names the body’s flow as the source of ritual uncleanness, distinguishing a bodily condition from a deed of wrongdoing.
THE MEANING
A discharge from the body places the man in a state called unclean; the verse names the flow as the reason for that status. Nothing in this sentence calls the man guilty or says he chose the condition.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The claim that every state called unclean means personal guilt falls away here; the stated cause is a bodily discharge, not a named wrongdoing.
THE ROOT
זוֹבוֹ
zōvô
GROWS FROM
זוב
Root זוב (zûv) means to flow or stream.
“issue” in this verse is zōvô. זוֹבוֹ means his flow or discharge, with a possessive ending attached to the root זוב. The same seed appears in זָב (zāv, flowing), tying the condition to the body’s ongoing flow rather than to a chosen act.
ALSO GROWS
zāv: Flowing; one who flows.
זָב
This participle appears in the verse’s description of the man, linking the person’s condition to the flow itself.
yāzûv: Flows.
יָזוּב
In Leviticus 15:25 the same root describes blood that flows, showing the word’s use for an ongoing bodily discharge.
טָמֵא
ṭāmēʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
Root טמא (ṭ-m-ʾ) means to be impure or ritually unclean.
“unclean” in this verse is ṭāmēʾ. This root names a state of impurity; by itself, it does not name intent or wrongdoing. Here the sentence ties that status to the discharge, keeping bodily condition distinct from moral blame.
ALSO GROWS
ṭumʾāh: Impurity or uncleanness.
טֻמְאָה
This noun uses the same root to name the state that the verse calls טָמֵא.
ṭimmēʾ: To make unclean or defile.
טִמֵּא
This verb shares the root consonants and shows the related language of entering or placing something in an impure state.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names bodily conditions plainly, making the body’s state visible within ritual instruction and personal story.
And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.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.And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,THE THREAD
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 root זוב names the flow in this verse and the issue in Leviticus 15:13. There, the flow has a boundary, after which a defined process leads to clean status; the condition is not a permanent identity.
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