What Does Leviticus 15:32 Mean?
This is the instruction for the one who flows, and for the one from whom the lying down of seed goes out, and who is soiled by it.
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
This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled therewith;THE KEY
The verse names the body’s emission as זֶרַע (zeraʿ, seed), so what leaves the body remains linked to what can be sown.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks directly to bodily life: it distinguishes a running issue from seed leaving the body, then names defilement as the ritual condition joined to that emission. The body, its flow, and the resulting status remain visible in the same sentence.
THE ROOT
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
זרע
זָרַע (zāraʿ): to sow; זֶרַע (zeraʿ): seed, what is sown.
“the lying down of seed” in this verse is zeraʿ. זֶרַע (zeraʿ, seed) belongs to the same root as זָרַע (zāraʿ, to sow) and זֹרֵעַ (zōrēaʿ, sower). Here, what leaves the body is not named merely as fluid; the word keeps bodily emission and sowing within one family.
ALSO GROWS
zāraʿ: to sow
זָרַע
The verb keeps the seed in motion, illuminating why the verse names the emission as seed.
zōrēaʿ: sower, one who sows
זֹרֵעַ
This branch names the agent of sowing, keeping seed, its movement, and its source connected.
לְטָמְאָה
ləṭāməʾāh
GROWS FROM
טמא
טָמֵא (ṭāmēʾ): to be or become unclean; טִמֵּא (ṭimmēʾ): to render unclean.
“soiled” in this verse is ləṭāməʾāh. The phrase לְטָמְאָה (ləṭāməʾāh, to become unclean) belongs to the same family as טָמֵא (ṭāmēʾ, unclean) and טֻמְאָה (ṭumʾāh, impurity). The root links the resulting state with the process of becoming unclean, while the verse attaches that ritual condition to the bodily emission.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmēʾ: unclean, impure
טָמֵא
This form names the state associated with the emission in the verse.
ṭumʾāh: impurity, uncleanness
טֻמְאָה
The noun makes the same root’s condition visible as a state.
ṭimmēʾ: to make unclean, defile
טִמֵּא
This form shows the root can also name the action that brings about uncleanness.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names bodily flow as a real condition: its presence carries ritual status, while its cessation can mark restoration.
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When any man flows out of his flesh, by his flow he is soiled.If there is among you any man who is not clean because of what comes upon him in the night, then he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come within the camp.And at once the spring of her blood dried up, and she knew in her body that she was healed of the scourge.THE THREAD
And Onan knew that the seed would not be his, and whenever he went in to his brother's wife, he ruined it on the ground, lest he give seed to his brother.Genesis 38:9 uses זֶרַע (zeraʿ, seed) for offspring and again in the phrase “give seed.” The shared root keeps the reproductive meaning present in Leviticus 15:32, where seed is the bodily emission named.
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