Leviticus 15:24

Summary

This verse addresses the case where a man has sexual relations with a woman during her menstrual impurity. The Hebrew states that if this occurs and her impurity comes upon him, he becomes unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies becomes unclean as well.

Key words

• sha.Kho ("certainly to lie", H7901I) — infinitive absolute paired with the following imperfect verb of the same root, a grammatical construction that intensifies or emphasizes the certainty of the action described.
• yish.Kav ("he will lie with", H7901I) — qal imperfect, marking the verb this infinitive absolute reinforces; together they form the emphatic "if he indeed lies with her" opening the condition.
• ni.da.Ta + h ("her menstruous impurity", H5079 + H9034) — feminine singular noun in construct form with a possessive suffix, naming the specific condition ("impurity") that transfers onto the man.
• ta.Me' ("he will be unclean", H2930A) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain after the conditional clause to state the consequence as a fixed outcome.
• mish.Kav ("bed", H4904) — masculine singular noun in construct with the following relative clause, identifying the object (the bed) that also becomes contaminated.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) plus the conditional particle 'Im ("if", H0518A), followed by the emphatic infinitive absolute sha.Kho plus the finite verb yish.Kav, both from the root H7901I ("to lie"). This doubling of the verb form is a common Biblical Hebrew device to stress that the condition, if it occurs, occurs definitively — English translations typically render this simply as "if a man lies with her" without conveying the added emphasis present in the Hebrew.

The consequence is introduced with u. ("and") plus te.Hi ("it will be", H1961), a jussive form attached to ni.da.Ta+h ("her impurity"), stating that her impurity comes to be "upon him" ('a.La + suffix v, H5921A). The text then shifts grammatical strategy: ve. + ta.Me' uses a vav-consecutive perfect (sequential perfect) to continue the narrative logically — "and he will be unclean seven days" — rather than another jussive, marking this as the resulting state rather than a further wished-for outcome.

The final clause repeats the construction with kol ("every", H3605) governing ha.mish.Kav ("the bed") in construct, followed by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A) introducing a subordinate clause: "which he lies upon it" (yish.Kav + 'a.La + suffix). The clause closes with yit.Ma' ("it will be unclean", H2930A), an imperfect form, extending the impurity from the man himself to the physical object of the bed.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ni.da.Ta ("her menstruous impurity") as ἡ ἀκαθαρσία αὐτῆς ("her uncleanness"), a more general term than the specific Hebrew noun for menstrual impurity. The Vulgate paraphrases the opening condition as "tempore sanguinis menstrualis" ("at the time of menstrual blood"), naming the blood explicitly where the Hebrew text names the impurity (nidah) rather than the blood itself.