Leviticus 15:21

Summary

The verse establishes that anyone who touches the bed of a woman during her menstrual impurity must wash their clothes and bathe in water, remaining ritually unclean until evening. The Hebrew presents a conditional-consequential structure: contact with the object triggers a fixed sequence of purification actions and a temporary state of impurity.

Key words

• no.Ge.a' ("[one who] touches", H5060) — qal participle, masculine singular, functioning substantively as "the one who touches"; the participle form marks the subject by the ongoing/generic act rather than a single completed event.
• mishkava ("bed", H4904) — masculine singular noun in construct state ("bed of..."), joined to the suffix -ha ("her", H9024), specifying whose bed is meant.
• yekhabbes ("he will wash", H3526H) — piel imperfect, intensive stem indicating a thorough or repeated washing of garments, distinct from the following verb for bathing the body.
• rachatz ("he will wash/bathe", H7364) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by the imperfect; here it refers to bathing the body ("with water"), separate from washing clothes.
• tame' ("he will be unclean", H2930A) — qal sequential perfect, marking the resulting state that follows the washing actions, bounded by 'ad ha'arev ("until the evening", H5704/H6153).

What the text says

The clause opens with ve-khol ha-noge'a ("and everyone who touches"), using the article ha- (H9009) with the participle no.Ge.a' to form a generic class: "the toucher" as a category, not a single named individual. The object touched is mishkava ("her bed", H4904 + H9024), in construct form linking the noun tightly to the suffixed pronoun.

The consequence is expressed through a verbal chain: an initial imperfect verb yekhabbes ("he will wash", H3526H, piel) sets the main action, followed by two sequential perfects, rachatz ("he will wash/bathe", H7364) and tame' ("he will be unclean", H2930A), joined by the narrative ve- (H9001). This chain — imperfect followed by converted perfects — is a common Hebrew way of expressing a sequence of consequences that logically and temporally follow one another: first washing garments, then bathing in water, then remaining in a state of impurity. The piel stem of yekhabbes suggests an intensive or thorough washing of the garments themselves, while rachatz uses the plain qal stem for washing the body with mayim ("water", H4325G). The temporal boundary of the unclean state is fixed by the prepositional phrase 'ad ha'arev ("until the evening", H5704 + H9009 + H6153).

Differences between versions

The Vulgate text supplied for this reference reads differently from the Hebrew and the other versions, describing lying or sitting during "days of separation" rather than touching a bed, indicating the Vulgate text given here corresponds to a different clause than the Hebrew verse quoted. The Septuagint follows the Hebrew structure closely, rendering the sequence of touching, washing garments, and bathing, followed by impurity until evening.