Leviticus 15:23

Summary

Leviticus 15:23 extends the rule of ritual impurity by touch to two possible objects — a bed or a piece of furniture/an article — on which a woman (referred to in the preceding verses) had been sitting. Whoever touches that object becomes unclean until evening.

Key words

• mishkav ("bed", H4904) — masculine singular noun, the first of two alternative objects named in the conditional clause.
• keli ("article", H3627) — masculine singular noun; a vessel, utensil, or piece of furniture, presented as the second alternative via the disjunctive 'o ("or", H0176A).
• yoshevet ("sitting", H3427) — qal participle, feminine singular; expresses an ongoing or characteristic state ("she is/was sitting"), rather than a single completed action.
• be-nog'o (from naga' "touches", H5060) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed preposition be- ("in/when") and 3ms suffix, forming a temporal clause: "in his touching it."
• yitma' ("he will be unclean", H2930A) — qal imperfect, expressing the resulting state as an ongoing or future consequence of the contact described.

What the text says

The verse is built as a conditional-relative chain: ve-'im ("and if", H9002+H0518A) opens the condition, which splits into two possibilities joined by 'o ("or", H0176A) — either the object in question hu' ("it", H1931) is the mishkav ("bed"), or it is the keli ("article/furniture") that hi' ("she", H1931) yoshevet 'alav ("was sitting on it"). The participle yoshevet marks a durative state rather than a momentary act, meaning the ruling attaches to the object she habitually or currently occupies, not just a single sitting event. The apodosis introduces the temporal clause be-nog'o vo ("in his touching it"), using an infinitive construct rather than a finite verb, which frames the touching as the triggering circumstance for the imperfect verb yitma' ("he will be unclean"), followed by the temporal boundary 'ad ha-'arev ("until the evening", H5704+H6153).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the touching clause as "ἐν τῷ ἅπτεσθαι αὐτὸν αὐτῆς" ("in his touching of her"), using a genitive pronoun for the woman, where the Hebrew be-nog'o vo specifies touching "it" (the bed or article), not the woman herself. The LXX also phrases the first condition as "ἐν τῇ κοίτῃ αὐτῆς οὔσης" ("being in her bed"), adding a possessive "her" not explicit in the Hebrew ha-mishkav ("the bed"). The Vulgate text supplied here includes additional material about washing garments and bathing in water ("lavabit vestimenta sua... ipse lotus aqua") that is not present in the Hebrew wording of this verse as given.