Bible Strands
Leviticus 15:18
If a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both must bathe with water, and they will remain unclean until evening.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The directive is embedded within the Levitical purity code, issued to regulate ritual status for the Israelite community following the tabernacle instructions.
The words — The text specifies שִׁכְבַת־זָרַע (shikhvat-zaraʿ), meaning “a laying of seed,” and commands וְרָחֲצוּ (ve-raḥaṣû), “and they will wash,” for both parties involved.
The thread — This regulation connects to the washing requirement for contaminated clothing and leather in Leviticus 15:17, the general bed-touching purification in Leviticus 15:5, and the temporary separation rule in Exodus 19:15.
Why it lands — The text states that sexual intercourse with semen emission renders both participants ceremonially unclean until evening, requiring water immersion to restore ritual status.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.
Cross-references
- Exodus 19:15 “Be prepared for the third day,” he said to the people. “Do not draw near to a woman.”
- Leviticus 15:5 Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening.
- 1 Samuel 21:4 “There is no common bread on hand,” the priest replied, “but there is some consecrated bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.”
- Psalms 51:5 Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
- 1 Corinthians 6:12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.
- 1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
- Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
- Ephesians 5:3 But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:3 For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
- 2 Timothy 2:22 Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.