Leviticus 15:16

Summary

Leviticus 15:16 addresses the case of a man from whom shikhvat-zara' ("a laying of seed", H7902/H2233I) goes out. The verse prescribes washing his whole body in water and states he remains unclean until evening.

Key words

• ki ("if", H3588A) — introduces the conditional/subordinating clause that frames the entire case ("if it happens that...").
• tetze' ("it will go out", H3318L) — qal imperfect, third person feminine, agreeing with the feminine noun shikhvat; expresses the event as a potential or recurring occurrence rather than a single completed act.
• shikhvat-zara' ("a laying of seed", H7902 construct + H2233I) — a construct chain literally "a lying-down of seed," a feminine singular noun in construct relationship with the masculine noun zara' ("seed").
• rachatz ("he will wash", H7364) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative sequence begun by the conditional clause; the sequential form ties the washing directly to the preceding condition as its consequence.
• tame' ("he will be unclean", H2930A) — qal sequential perfect, parallel in form to rachatz, marking the resulting state that follows the washing within the same chain of consequence.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with ve'ish ("and a man", H0376G) followed by the conditional particle ki ("if", H3588A), establishing a legal case format common in this chapter: a subject is named, then a condition is stated. The verb tetze' ("it will go out", H3318L) is feminine to agree grammatically with its subject shikhvat-zara' ("a laying of seed"), even though the referent concerns a man — the grammatical gender of the verb follows the noun shikhvat, not the human subject.

After the conditional clause, the text shifts to two sequential perfect verbs, rachatz ("he will wash", H7364) and tame' ("he will be unclean", H2930A), both continuing the narrative chain introduced by the initial vav. This verb form links the washing action and the resulting impure state as consecutive events flowing from the stated condition, a structure the English translations render as separate independent clauses ("he must bathe... and he will be unclean") without preserving the chained syntactic dependency visible in the Hebrew perfect-consecutive forms. The phrase kol-besaro ("all his body", H3605/H1320) uses a construct chain to specify totality — "all of his flesh" — emphasizing that the washing covers the entire body, not a part of it.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew construct shikhvat-zara' ("a laying of seed") with the Greek phrase κοίτη σπέρματος ("bed/lying of seed"), closely mirroring the Hebrew construct structure. The Vulgate instead uses semen coitus ("seed of intercourse"), which shifts the noun pairing toward the act of intercourse rather than the Hebrew's more literal "lying down" (shikhvat). The Hebrew term shikhvat itself denotes a "lying" or "laying," a nuance not fully carried by the Vulgate's coitus.