What Does Leviticus 15:33 Mean?
And for the woman who is faint in her separation, and for the one who flows, and for the man, and for the woman, and for the man who lies down with the soiled one.
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 of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that hath an issue, of the man, and of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is unclean.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “issue” comes from the root זוב, “to flow,” gathering the verse’s categories around what flows from the body and how bodies meet.
THE MEANING
This verse gathers menstrual bleeding, a man’s discharge, and sexual contact into one field of bodily impurity. It presents these conditions as affecting contact between bodies. The verse names a state of ritual impurity, not a measure of anyone’s worth.
THE ROOT
הַזָּב
hazzāv
GROWS FROM
זוב
zûb: to flow, stream, or gush out.
“the one who flows” in this verse is hazzāv. The same seed names both the person described by the discharge and the discharge itself, keeping body and flow linguistically joined. Isaiah 48:21 uses this root for water gushing from a rock, so it describes movement or discharge without implying moral fault.
ALSO GROWS
zov: A flow or discharge.
זוֹב
This noun names the flow itself, the bodily condition grouped in the verse.
yāzûvû: They flow or gush out.
יָזוּבוּ
Isaiah 48:21 uses this form for waters gushing from a rock, showing the root’s concrete sense of flowing out.
טְמֵאָה
ṭəmēʾāh
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ: to be ritually impure or unclean.
“soiled” in this verse is ṭəmēʾāh. The root names a condition of ritual impurity attached to the body and its contact. Here it marks a status; it does not call the person morally blameworthy.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmēʾ: Unclean or impure.
טָמֵא
This is the masculine form of the same condition named in the verse.
ṭumʾāh: Impurity or uncleanness.
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the state that the verse applies to the bodily conditions and contact it describes.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats bodily flow as a real condition and connects it with contact and bodily purification.
And if a woman flows, and her flow in her flesh is blood, she shall be in her separation seven days, and whoever touches her shall be soiled until evening.She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, and at once her flow of blood stood still.For if the blood of bulls and goats, with the ash of a heifer sprinkled on those made common, sets apart to the cleanness of the flesh.THE THREAD
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When any man flows out of his flesh, by his flow he is soiled.The Hebrew behind “issue” belongs to זוב, the root of flowing, in both verses. Leviticus 15:2 names the man’s discharge directly, while 15:33 gathers that flow with other bodily conditions and their contact.
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