What Does Leviticus 15:3 Mean?
And this shall be his soiling in his flow. Whether his flesh runs with its flow, or his flesh is sealed shut against its flow, this is his soiling.
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 this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness.THE KEY
The discharge can stop without the condition being over: the verse names both motion and closure as uncleanness.
THE MEANING
The verse names a ritual condition in either state: the discharge runs, or it is stopped, and it remains his uncleanness. Visible cessation and being cleared are not the same thing; the law gives cleansing its own process.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a stopped discharge means the uncleanness has ended.
THE ROOT
זוֹבוֹ
zōvō
GROWS FROM
זוב
zuv
To flow, issue, or gush.
“flow” in this verse is zōvō. The noun for the discharge comes from the root for flowing, so it carries the movement within the thing it names. The verse holds that word beside a stopped state: even when the motion ends, the condition is still named as uncleanness.
ALSO GROWS
zōv: Flow or discharge.
זֹוב
This noun names the flow itself, the same word family as “his issue” in the verse.
yāzuv: Will flow or issue forth.
יָזוּב
This verb form keeps all three root consonants and shows the movement named by the noun; it appears in Leviticus 15:25.
הֶחְתִּים
hechtim
GROWS FROM
חתם
ḥatam
To seal or close.
“is sealed shut” in this verse is hechtim. The Hebrew verb for being stopped belongs to the language of sealing or closing. That gives the verse a sharper image: the flow is closed off, yet this closure is still included in the named condition.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōtām: A seal or signet.
חוֹתָם
This noun makes the root’s sense of sealing concrete.
neḥtam: Was sealed or closed.
נֶחְתַּם
This form shares the root consonants and shows closure as a completed state.
THE PATTERN
Ritual status is not erased by a surface change or by the end of the event that began it; the text names its own point of cleansing.
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.And the priest shall see him again on the seventh day; and behold, if the stroke is somewhat dim, and the stroke has not spread in the skin, the priest shall declare him clean; it is only a scab; and he shall wash his garments, and be clean.Whoever touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.THE THREAD
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.The Hebrew word for “issue” here belongs to the same זוב (zuv), flow or discharge, root family as the word in verse 3. This verse distinguishes the issue ending from the later point at which he is clean, opening up why verse 3 includes both flowing and stopped states.
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