What Does Leviticus 15:22 Mean in the King James?

And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

Leviticus 15:22 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The verse makes contact transmissible, then gives its effect a limit: until evening.

THE MEANING

This verse speaks now about how contact with an object another body has used can carry a condition to the person who touches it. The response addresses both clothes and body, and the condition has a named endpoint at evening. It does not become a permanent identity.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Contact permanently defines the person who encounters it. The verse names a temporary condition with a clear limit.

THE ROOT

נֹגֵעַ

nōgēaʿ

GROWS FROM

נגע

n-g-ʿ

to touch, reach, or strike

“toucheth” in this verse is nōgēaʿ. The same word family holds both reaching contact and a stroke or affliction, so English “touch” carries a sharper sense of impact than it may first suggest. Here the surrounding actions show the consequence: contact is followed by washing and a stated limit.

ALSO GROWS

nagaʿ: to touch, reach, or strike

נָגַע

This is the verb behind “toucheth,” making contact the event that begins the prescribed response.

negaʿ: a stroke, plague, or affliction

נֶגַע

This related noun shows the root’s range from contact to impact, illuminating why the verse treats this touch as consequential.

טָמֵא

ṭāmēʾ

GROWS FROM

טמא

ṭ-m-ʾ

to be ritually unclean or impure

“unclean” in this verse is ṭāmēʾ. This word names a ritual state, not a verdict about the person’s moral worth. The verse bounds that state in time, “until the even”, so uncleanness here is a condition with an endpoint.

ALSO GROWS

tumʾah: impurity, uncleanness

טֻמְאָה

The noun names the condition that the touching person enters in this verse.

ṭimmēʾ: to render unclean, to defile

טִמֵּא

This causative form makes explicit the relation between an encounter and the resulting status.

THE PATTERN

Contact carries a condition between what touches and what is touched, while cleansing or a change in contact can alter what follows.

And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.

Numbers 19:22 · KJVThis states the transfer directly: the person who touches the unclean thing also enters a temporary state of uncleanness.

And upon whatsoever any of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel it be, wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even; so it shall be cleansed.

Leviticus 11:32 · KJVContact passes the condition to a vessel, and the verse names water and evening as part of its cleansing boundary.

And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Matthew 8:3 · KJVHere touch carries cleansing in the other direction: contact with Jesus is followed by the man’s cleansing.

THE THREAD

Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.

Haggai 2:13 · KJV

Haggai asks whether uncleanness crosses by touch, and the answer is yes; “touch” there is ⁨נגע⁩ (nagaʿ, to touch or reach), the same root as the word in Leviticus. Leviticus 15:22 shows what that transfer entails here: washing, bathing, and a limit at evening.

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