What Does Leviticus 15:20 Mean?
And whatever she lies upon in her separation shall be soiled, and whatever she sits upon also shall be soiled.
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 every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.THE KEY
Here, ritual impurity reaches beyond the body: the surfaces that bear her weight share its status.
THE MEANING
During her menstrual separation, the bed beneath her and the seat she uses take on the same ritual status. The verse describes a condition carried through contact with ordinary objects, not an accusation of wrongdoing.
THE ROOT
יִטְמָא
yiṭmāʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
To be or become ritually impure; in related forms, to make something impure.
“soiled” in this verse is yiṭmāʾ. The Hebrew verb names a state that comes to be, and the verse applies it to both the place she lies and the place she sits. The root’s related forms name both the condition of impurity and the state of being unclean, showing how one status extends across the body’s surroundings.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmēʾ: Ritually unclean; impure.
טָמֵא
This adjective names the status that the verse says the bed and seat acquire.
ṭumʾāh: Ritual impurity; the condition of being unclean.
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the condition shared by the surfaces that receive her weight.
THE PATTERN
Ritual impurity can pass through contact from a source to the objects that receive it.
And whatever any of them falls upon when they are dead is unclean, whether it is a wooden vessel, or a garment, or a skin, or a sack, whatever vessel it is in which any work is done. It must be put into waters, and it is unclean until evening; so it is clean.And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the living soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.Then Haggai said, If one who is unclean by a corpse touches any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.THE THREAD
And at once the spring of her blood dried up, and she knew in her body that she was healed of the scourge.In Leviticus, a woman’s menstrual separation extends ritual impurity to the surfaces her body touches. In Mark, a woman with a flow of blood has just touched Jesus’ garment, and the narrative turns to her healing: contact is followed by restoration.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us