What Does Leviticus 15:13 Mean?
And when the one who flows is cleansed of his flow, then he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, and tread his garments, and wash his flesh in living waters, and shall be clean.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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
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
“cleansed” 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
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 the one being cleansed shall tread his garments, and shave all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and shall settle outside his tent seven days.Then I will sprinkle clean waters upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols.The one who leans his weight into me, as the writing has said, rivers of living waters will flow from his belly.THE THREAD
Then I will sprinkle clean waters upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols.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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