Leviticus 12:4

12:4 Then she will remain ¹  thirty-three days in blood purity. ²  She must not touch anything holy and she must not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. ³ 

Leviticus 15:31-33

Summary of Purification Regulations for Bodily Discharges

15:31 “‘Thus you ⁴  are to set the Israelites apart from their impurity so that they ⁵  do not die in their impurity by defiling my tabernacle which is in their midst. 15:32 This is the law of the one with a discharge: the one who has a seminal emission ⁶  and becomes unclean by it, ⁷  15:33 the one who is sick in her menstruation, the one with a discharge, whether male or female, ⁸  and a man ⁹  who has sexual intercourse with an unclean woman.’”

Leviticus 21:17-23

21:17 “Tell Aaron, ‘No man from your descendants throughout their generations ¹⁰  who has a physical flaw ¹¹  is to approach to present the food of his God. 21:18 Certainly ¹²  no man who has a physical flaw is to approach: a blind man, or one who is lame, or one with a slit nose, ¹³  or a limb too long, 21:19 or a man who has had a broken leg or arm, ¹⁴  21:20 or a hunchback, or a dwarf, ¹⁵  or one with a spot in his eye, ¹⁶  or a festering eruption, or a feverish rash, ¹⁷  or a crushed testicle. 21:21 No man from the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a physical flaw may step forward ¹⁸  to present the Lord’s gifts; he has a physical flaw, so he must not step forward to present the food of his God. 21:22 He may eat both the most holy and the holy food of his God, 21:23 but he must not go into the veil-canopy ¹⁹  or step forward to the altar because he has a physical flaw. Thus ²⁰  he must not profane my holy places, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

Leviticus 22:3-6

22:3 Say to them, ‘Throughout your generations, ²¹  if any man from all your descendants approaches the holy offerings which the Israelites consecrate ²²  to the Lord while he is impure, ²³  that person must be cut off from before me. ²⁴  I am the Lord. 22:4 No man ²⁵  from the descendants of Aaron who is diseased or has a discharge ²⁶  may eat the holy offerings until he becomes clean. The one ²⁷  who touches anything made unclean by contact with a dead person, ²⁸  or a man who has a seminal emission, ²⁹  22:5 or a man who touches a swarming thing by which he becomes unclean, ³⁰  or touches a person ³¹  by which he becomes unclean, whatever that person’s impurity ³²  – 22:6 the person who touches any of these ³³  will be unclean until evening and must not eat from the holy offerings unless he has bathed his body in water.

Numbers 9:6

9:6 It happened that some men ³⁴  who were ceremonially defiled ³⁵  by the dead body of a man ³⁶  could not keep ³⁷  the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

Numbers 19:13-20

19:13 Anyone who touches the corpse of any dead person and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. And that person must be cut off from Israel, ³⁸  because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

19:14 “‘This is the law: When a man dies ³⁹  in a tent, anyone who comes into the tent and all who are in the tent will be ceremonially unclean seven days. 19:15 And every open container that has no covering fastened on it is unclean. 19:16 And whoever touches the body of someone killed with a sword in the open fields, ⁴⁰  or the body of someone who died of natural causes, ⁴¹  or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean seven days. ⁴² 

19:17 “‘For a ceremonially unclean person you must take ⁴³  some of the ashes of the heifer ⁴⁴  burnt for purification from sin and pour ⁴⁵  fresh running ⁴⁶  water over them in a vessel. 19:18 Then a ceremonially clean person must take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all its furnishings, and on the people who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, or one killed, or one who died, or a grave. 19:19 And the clean person must sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he must purify him, ⁴⁷  and then he must wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and he will be clean in the evening. 19:20 But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person must be cut off from among the community, because he has polluted the sanctuary of the Lord; the water of purification was not sprinkled on him, so he is unclean.

[12:4]  ¹ tn Heb “sit, dwell” (יָשָׁב, yashav) normally means “to sit, to dwell”), but here it means “to remain, to stay” in the same condition for a period of time (cf., e.g., Gen 24:55).

[12:4]  ² tn Heb “in bloods of purification” or “purifying” or “purity”; NASB “in the blood of her purification”; NRSV “her time of blood purification.” See the following note.

[12:4]  ³ tn The initial seven days after the birth of a son were days of blood impurity for the woman as if she were having her menstrual period. Her impurity was contagious during this period, so no one should touch her or even furniture on which she has sat or reclined (Lev 15:19-23), lest they too become impure. Even her husband would become impure for seven days if he had sexual intercourse with her during this time (Lev 15:24; cf. 18:19). The next thirty-three days were either “days of purification, purifying” or “days of purity,” depending on how one understands the abstract noun טֹהֳרָה (toharah, “purification, purity”) in this context. During this time the woman could not touch anything holy or enter the sanctuary, but she was no longer contagious like she had been during the first seven days. She could engage in normal everyday life, including sexual intercourse, without fear of contaminating anyone else (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 73-74; cf. J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:749-50). Thus, in a sense, the thirty-three days were a time of blood “purity” (cf. the present translation) as compared to the previous seven days of blood “impurity,” but they were also a time of blood “purification” (or “purifying”) as compared to the time after the thirty-three days, when the blood atonement had been made and she was pronounced “clean” by the priest (see vv. 6-8 below). In other words, the thirty-three day period was a time of “blood” (flow), but this was “pure blood,” as opposed to the blood of the first seven days.

[15:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “And you shall.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV).

[15:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “and they.” Here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) indicates a negative purpose (“lest,” so NAB, NASB).

[15:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “and who a lying of seed goes out from him.”

[15:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “to become unclean in it.”

[15:33]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the one with a discharge, his discharge to the male and the female.”

[15:33]  ⁹ tn Heb “and for a man.”

[21:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to their generations.”

[21:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “who in him is a flaw”; cf. KJV, ASV “any blemish”; NASB, NIV “a defect.” The rendering “physical flaw” is used to refer to any birth defect or physical injury of the kind described in the following verses (cf. the same Hebrew word also in Lev 24:19-20). The same term is used for “flawed” animals, which must not be offered to the Lord in Lev 22:20-25.

[21:18]  ¹² tn The particle כִּי (ki) in this context is asseverative, indicating absolutely certainty (GKC 498 §159.ee).

[21:18]  ¹³ tn Lexically, the Hebrew term חָרֻם (kharum) seems to refer to a split nose or perhaps any number of other facial defects (HALOT 354 s.v. II חרם qal; cf. G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 292, n. 7); cf. KJV, ASV “a flat nose”; NASB “a disfigured face.” The NJPS translation is “a limb too short” as a balance to the following term which means “extended, raised,” and apparently refers to “a limb too long” (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 146).

[21:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who there is in him a broken leg or a broken arm,” or perhaps “broken foot or broken hand.” The Hebrew term רֶגֶל (regel) is commonly rendered “foot,” but it can also refer to the “leg,” and the Hebrew יָד (yad) is most often translated “hand,” but can also refer to the “[fore]arm” (as opposed to כַּף, kaf, “palm of the hand” or “hand”). See HALOT 386 s.v. יָד and 1184 s.v. רֶגֶל respectively (cf. the NJPS translation). In this context, these terms probably apply to any part of the limb that was broken, including hand and the foot. B. A. Levine (Leviticus [JPSTC], 146) points out that such injuries often did not heal properly in antiquity because they were not properly set and, therefore, remained a “physical flaw” permanently.

[21:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “thin”; cf. NAB “weakly.” This could refer to either an exceptionally small (i.e., dwarfed) man (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 146) or perhaps one with a “withered limb” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 342, 344).

[21:20]  ¹⁶ tn The term rendered “spot” derives from a root meaning “mixed” or “confused” (cf. NAB “walleyed”). It apparently refers to any kind of marked flaw in the eye that can be seen by others. Smr, Syriac, Tg. Onq., and Tg. Ps.-J. have plural “his eyes.”

[21:20]  ¹⁷ tn The exact meaning and medical reference of the terms rendered “festering eruption” and “feverish rash” is unknown, but see the translations and remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 146; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 342, 344, 349-50; and R. K. Harrison, NIDOTTE 1:890 and 2:461.

[21:21]  ¹⁸ tn Or “shall approach” (see HALOT 670 s.v. נגשׁ).

[21:23]  ¹⁹ sn See the note on Lev 16:2 for the rendering “veil-canopy.”

[21:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[22:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “To your generations.”

[22:3]  ²² tn The Piel (v. 2) and Hiphil (v. 3) forms of the verb קָדַשׁ (qadash) appear to be interchangeable in this context. Both mean “to consecrate” (Heb “make holy [or “sacred”]”).

[22:3]  ²³ tn Heb “and his impurity [is] on him”; NIV “is ceremonially unclean”; NAB, NRSV “while he is in a state of uncleanness.”

[22:3]  ²⁴ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty, see the note on Lev 7:20. Cf. the interpretive translation of TEV “he can never again serve at the altar.”

[22:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Man man.” The reduplication is a way of saying “any man” (cf. Lev 15:2; 17:3, etc.), but with a negative command it means “No man” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 147).

[22:4]  ²⁶ sn The diseases and discharges mentioned here are those described in Lev 13-15.

[22:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “And the one.”

[22:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in all unclean of a person/soul”; for the Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) meaning “a [dead] person,” see the note on Lev 19:28.

[22:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “or a man who goes out from him a lying of seed.”

[22:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “which there shall be uncleanness to him.”

[22:5]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew term for “person” here is אָדָם (adam, “human being”), which could either a male or a female person.

[22:5]  ³² tn Heb “to all his impurity.” The phrase refers to the impurity of the person whom the man touches to become unclean (see the previous clause). To clarify this, the translation uses “that person’s” rather than “his.”

[22:6]  ³³ sn The phrase “any of these” refers back to the unclean things touched in vv. 4b-5.

[9:6]  ³⁴ tn In the Hebrew text the noun has no definite article, and so it signifies “some” or “certain” men.

[9:6]  ³⁵ tn The meaning, of course, is to be ceremonially unclean, and therefore disqualified from entering the sanctuary.

[9:6]  ³⁶ tn Or “a human corpse” (so NAB, NKJV). So also in v.7; cf. v. 10.

[9:6]  ³⁷ tn This clause begins with the vav (ו) conjunction and negative before the perfect tense. Here is the main verb of the sentence: They were not able to observe the Passover. The first part of the verse provides the explanation for their problem.

[19:13]  ³⁸ sn It is in passages like this that the view that being “cut off” meant the death penalty is the hardest to support. Would the Law prescribe death for someone who touches a corpse and fails to follow the ritual? Besides, the statement in this section that his uncleanness remains with him suggests that he still lives on.

[19:14]  ³⁹ tn The word order gives the classification and then the condition: “a man, when he dies….”

[19:16]  ⁴⁰ tn The expression for “in the open field” is literally “upon the face of the field” (עַל־פְּנֵי הַשָּׂדֶה, ’al pÿne hassadeh). This ruling is in contrast now to what was contacted in the tent.

[19:16]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “a dead body”; but in contrast to the person killed with a sword, this must refer to someone who died of natural causes.

[19:16]  ⁴² sn See Matt 23:27 and Acts 23:3 for application of this by the time of Jesus.

[19:17]  ⁴³ tn The verb is the perfect tense, third masculine plural, with a vav (ו) consecutive. The verb may be worded as a passive, “ashes must be taken,” but that may be too awkward for this sentence. It may be best to render it with a generic “you” to fit the instruction of the text.

[19:17]  ⁴⁴ tn The word “heifer” is not in the Hebrew text, but it is implied.

[19:17]  ⁴⁵ tn Here too the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; rather than make this passive, it is here left as a direct instruction to follow the preceding one. For the use of the verb נָתַן (natan) in the sense of “pour,” see S. C. Reif, “A Note on a Neglected Connotation of ntn,” VT 20 (1970): 114-16.

[19:17]  ⁴⁶ tn The expression is literally “living water.” Living water is the fresh, flowing spring water that is clear, life-giving, and not the collected pools of stagnant or dirty water.

[19:19]  ⁴⁷ tn The construction uses a simple Piel of חָטָא (khata’, “to purify”) with a pronominal suffix – “he shall purify him.” Some commentators take this to mean that after he sprinkles the unclean then he must purify himself. But that would not be the most natural way to read this form.