What Does Leviticus 15:22 Mean?
And whoever touches anything she sits upon shall tread his garments, wash himself in the waters, and be soiled until evening.
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 whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.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
“soiled” 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 whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the living soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.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 Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Be clean. And straightway his leprosy was cleansed.THE THREAD
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.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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