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Leviticus 15 · a question people ask

Was someone with a discharge sent out of the camp?

In the text

Leviticus 15 doesn't say so. It speaks of the bed he lies on and what he sits on (15:4), of whoever touches his bed (15:5), and of the wooden and clay vessels he touches (15:12). Numbers gives a command about it later: "Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is unclean by a corpse" (Numbers 5:2), "so that they don’t defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell" (Numbers 5:3). The Hebrew word there is the one this chapter uses for "he who has the discharge" (15:4). Neither book says more about how the two laws fit together, so any account of it goes beyond the text.

The verses

““‘Every bed on which he who has the discharge lies shall be unclean; and everything he sits on shall be unclean. Whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.”
Leviticus 15:4-5 · World English Bible
““‘The earthen vessel, which he who has the discharge touches, shall be broken; and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.”
Leviticus 15:12 · World English Bible
“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is unclean by a corpse. You shall put both male and female outside of the camp so that they don’t defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.””
Numbers 5:1-3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Leviticus 15

Leviticus 15: Until the evening

Leviticus 15 never calls the body's discharges sin. Most meant washing and waiting "until the evening" (15:5); one that went on ended with seven days and two birds on the eighth. Its reason is the LORD's "tabernacle that is among them" (15:31). And a woman with "a discharge of blood for twelve years" (Mark 5:25) touched Jesus and heard, "Daughter" (Mark 5:34).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions