Leviticus 12:4
וּשְׁלֹשִׁים יוֹם וּשְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים תֵּשֵׁב בִּדְמֵי טָהֳרָה בְּכָל־קֹדֶשׁ לֹֽא־תִגָּע וְאֶל־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ לֹא תָבֹא עַד־מְלֹאת יְמֵי טָהֳרָֽהּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֥ים יוֹם֙ וּשְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֔ים תֵּשֵׁ֖ב בִּדְמֵ֣י טָהֳרָ֑ה בְּכָל־קֹ֣דֶשׁ לֹֽא־תִגָּ֗ע וְאֶל־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ֙ לֹ֣א תָבֹ֔א עַד־מְלֹ֖את יְמֵ֥י טָהֳרָֽהּ׃
καὶ τριάκοντα ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς καθίσεται ἐν αἵματι ἀκαθάρτῳ αὐτῆς· παντὸς ἀγγίου οὐχ ἅψεται, καὶ εἰς τὸ ἁγιαστήριον οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται, ἕως ἂν πληρωθῶσιν αἱ ἡμέραι καθάρσεως αὐτῆς.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
ipsa vero triginta tribus diebus manebit in sanguine purificationis suæ. Omne sanctum non tanget, nec ingredietur in sanctuarium, donec impleantur dies purificationis suæ.
Después, la mujer deberá esperar treinta y tres días para purificarse del sangrado del parto. No debe tocar nada sagrado ni entrar al santuario hasta que se cumpla el tiempo de su purificación.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Mas ella permanecerá treinta y tres días en la sangre de su purgación: ninguna cosa santa tocará, ni vendrá al santuario, hasta que sean cumplidos los días de su purgación.
The woman shall continue in purification from her bleeding for thirty-three days. She must not touch anything sacred or go into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are complete.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 12:4 specifies a period of thirty-three days following the initial seven days of impurity after childbirth (mentioned in the previous verse), during which the woman remains in a state described as demei tohorah ("blood of purification", H1818/H2892A). During this time she is prohibited from touching consecrated objects or entering the sanctuary.
Key words
- teshev ("she will remain", H3427) — Qal imperfect, third person feminine singular; expresses continuous or future action, indicating she "will sit/remain" in this state throughout the specified period.
- demei ("blood of", H1818) — masculine plural construct; the construct form links it directly to tohorah, producing the phrase "blood(s) of purification."
- tohorah ("purification", H2892A) — feminine singular noun; despite referring to blood associated with impurity from childbirth, the noun itself derives from the root for ritual cleanness/purity.
- tigga' ("she will touch", H5060) — Qal imperfect with negation lo' (H3808) preceding it, forming a prohibition: "she will not touch."
- melot ("are completed", H4390) — Qal infinitive construct, used with the preposition 'ad ("until", H5704) to mark the temporal boundary: "until the completing of."
What the text says
The verse opens with a compound number construction: sheloshim yom ("thirty day[s]", H7970/H3117G) followed by u-shloshet yamim ("and three of days", H7969/H3117G), where H7969 appears in construct form ("three of") governing the plural yamim ("days"). This numerical phrase totals thirty-three, matching the sum in the translations. The verb teshev governs this entire period, describing the woman's continuous state "in the blood of purification" (bi-demei tohorah), using the preposition be (H9003) attached to the construct noun demei.
Two parallel prohibitions follow, each built with lo' + imperfect verb: lo'-tigga' ("she will not touch") regarding kol-qodesh ("any holy thing", H3605/H6944G), and lo' tavo' ("she will not go", H0935G) regarding ha-miqdash ("the sanctuary", H4720). Both prohibitions are bounded by the temporal clause 'ad melot yemei tohorah-h ("until the completing of the days of her purification"), where the infinitive melot combined with 'ad marks a terminus, and the pronominal suffix -ha ("her", H9024) attaches to tohorah specifying whose purification is meant.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew literally reads "blood of purification" (demei tohorah), a plural construct noun phrase. The LXX renders this as "unclean blood" (αἵματι ἀκαθάρτῳ), introducing the term ἀκάθαρτος ("unclean") which shifts the semantic emphasis from purification-in-process to uncleanness. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew structure more closely with "sanguine purificationis suae" ("blood of her purification"). Regarding kol-qodesh ("any holy thing"), the LXX reads παντὸς ἀγγίου ("any vessel"), diverging from the Hebrew's broader term for "holy thing" by specifying a container/vessel instead.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.