Leviticus 15:25
וְאִשָּׁה כִּֽי־יָזוּב זוֹב דָּמָהּ יָמִים רַבִּים בְּלֹא עֶת־נִדָּתָהּ אוֹ כִֽי־תָזוּב עַל־נִדָּתָהּ כָּל־יְמֵי זוֹב טֻמְאָתָהּ כִּימֵי נִדָּתָהּ תִּהְיֶה טְמֵאָה הִֽוא׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאִשָּׁ֡ה כִּֽי־יָזוּב֩ ז֨וֹב דָּמָ֜הּ יָמִ֣ים רַבִּ֗ים בְּלֹא֙ עֶת־נִדָּתָ֔הּ א֥וֹ כִֽי־תָז֖וּב עַל־נִדָּתָ֑הּ כָּל־יְמֵ֞י ז֣וֹב טֻמְאָתָ֗הּ כִּימֵ֧י נִדָּתָ֛הּ תִּהְיֶ֖ה טְמֵאָ֥ה הִֽוא׃
Καὶ γυνὴ ἐὰν ῥέῃ ῥύσει αἵματος ἡμέρας πλείους οὐκ ἐν καιρῷ τῆς ἀφέδρου αὐτῆς, ἐὰν καὶ ῥέῃ μετὰ τὴν ἄφεδρον αὐτῆς, πᾶσαι αἱ ἡμέραι ῥύσεως ἀκαθαρσίας αὐτῆς καθάπερ αἱ ἡμέραι τῆς ἀφέδρου, ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Mulier, quæ patitur multis diebus fluxum sanguinis non in tempore menstruali, vel quæ post menstruum sanguinem fluere non cessat, quamdiu subjacet huic passioni, immunda erit quasi sit in tempore menstruo.
“‘Si una mujer tiene un flujo de sangre durante muchos días fuera de su período normal, o si el sangrado le dura más tiempo de lo normal, será impura todo el tiempo que le dure el flujo, tal como en los días de su menstruación.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y la mujer, cuando siguiere el flujo de su sangre por muchos días fuera del tiempo de su costumbre, ó cuando tuviere flujo de sangre más de su costumbre; todo el tiempo del flujo de su inmundicia, será inmunda como en los días de su costumbre.
When a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days at a time other than her menstrual period, or if it continues beyond her period, she will be unclean all the days of her unclean discharge, just as she is during the days of her menstruation.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse addresses a woman who experiences a blood discharge lasting many days outside her normal menstrual period, or whose discharge continues beyond that period. In either case, she is classified as unclean for the entire duration of the discharge, on the same terms as during ordinary menstrual impurity.
Key words
- ki ("if", H3588A) — appears twice, introducing two parallel conditional clauses: discharge outside the normal time, and discharge extending beyond it.
- zov ("discharge of", H2101) — a masculine singular construct noun repeated three times (lines 5, 23), always governing a following noun (dam, "blood"; tum'ah, "uncleanness"), forming a technical vocabulary for flow/discharge.
- niddah ("menstruous impurity", H5079) — construct noun with pronominal suffix -ah ("her"), occurring three times, anchoring the comparison between abnormal discharge and the normal menstrual state.
- yamim rabbim ("many days", H3117G + H7227A) — plural noun plus plural adjective, specifying duration as the defining condition of the first case.
- tihyeh temeah hi ("she will be unclean, she", H1961 + H2931 + H1931) — imperfect verb "to be" followed by the feminine adjective "unclean" and the independent pronoun hi', which reinforces the subject already marked by the verb.
What the text says
The verse is built as two conditional clauses joined by 'o ("or", H0176A): the first (lines 1–14) describes discharge occurring be-lo' 'et niddatah — literally "in not-time of her niddah," i.e., outside the expected menstrual period; the second (lines 15–20) describes discharge that occurs 'al niddatah, using the preposition 'al ("on/beyond", H5921A), which frames the flow as extending upon or beyond the normal period. Both clauses use the same verb zov (H2100H, imperfect) for "to discharge," first in third-person masculine agreeing grammatically with the noun zov as subject, then in third-person feminine agreeing with the woman as subject — a grammatical shift not visible in translation.
The consequence clause (lines 21–32) piles up construct chains — kol yemei zov tum'atah, "all the days of the discharge of her uncleanness" — compared explicitly to kimei niddatah, "like the days of her niddah," using the comparative preposition ki (H9004). The final independent pronoun hi' after the adjective temeah ("unclean") adds emphasis to the subject already encoded in the verb tihyeh.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the second condition as μετὰ τὴν ἄφεδρον αὐτῆς ("after her period"), interpreting the Hebrew 'al niddatah as temporal succession rather than the more ambiguous "upon/beyond" sense of 'al. The Vulgate similarly reads it as continuation post menstruum sanguinem, "after the menstrual blood," aligning with the LXX's temporal reading rather than a strictly locative one.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.