What Does Leviticus 15:28 Mean in the King James?
But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she 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 same Hebrew root frames both her cleansing from the flow and her final cleanness, placing the seven days between two distinct stages.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the end of the discharge and the completed count as two distinct moments. Her clean status comes after she numbers seven days, so the bodily change and the finish of its prescribed interval are not collapsed into one instant.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that the end of the discharge is itself the completed clean status: seven counted days still stand before it.
THE ROOT
טָהֲרָה
taharah
GROWS FROM
טהר
ṭ-h-r
to be clean or pure; to become clean
“cleansed / clean” in this verse is taharah. The verse uses this root first for her being cleansed from the flow, then for her being clean after the seven days. English repeats “clean,” while the Hebrew root holds together two connected but distinct stages.
ALSO GROWS
tahor: clean, pure
טָהוֹר
This adjective names the state reached after the counted interval.
tohorah: cleanness, purification
טָהֳרָה
This noun makes the same root’s movement toward cleanness visible as a process or state.
וְסָפְרָה
vesafrah
GROWS FROM
ספר
s-p-r
to count, recount, or tell
“number” in this verse is vesafrah. She numbers the days “to herself,” making the interval measured rather than an unmarked wait. The same root also forms words for a book or record, linking the count to days deliberately accounted for.
ALSO GROWS
sefer: book, scroll, or record
סֵפֶר
A record preserves what has been counted or recounted; here the days are individually accounted for.
mispar: number or count
מִסְפָּר
This branch makes explicit the numerical sense carried by the verb in the verse.
מִזּוֹבָהּ
mizzovah
GROWS FROM
זוב
z-w-b
to flow or discharge
“issue” in this verse is mizzovah. The root names the condition concretely as a bodily flow. The verse’s sequence turns first on that flow ending, then on the days counted before cleanness is reached.
ALSO GROWS
zov: flow or discharge
זֹוב
This noun names the bodily issue from which she is cleansed.
zav: one experiencing a discharge
זָב
This form names a person through the condition of having a flow, as the surrounding passage does for both women and men.
THE PATTERN
A state of cleanness is reached through a marked interval, not simply presumed at the moment a condition changes.
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.But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.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 same Hebrew roots for discharge (זוב, z-w-b), counting (ספר, s-p-r), and cleanness (טהר, ṭ-h-r) organize both verses. Their parallel wording makes the sequence clear: the flow ends, days are counted, and clean status follows.
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