Bible Strands
Leviticus 15:23
And whether it is a bed or furniture on which she was sitting, whoever touches it will be unclean until evening.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The text records Moses relaying Yahweh’s instructions to the Israelites regarding ritual impurity laws. It follows the immediate regulations for contact with menstrual impurity and precedes the rules for sexual contact with a woman during her period.
The words — The verse hinges on the terms מִשְׁכָּב (mishkav, "bed") and כְּלִי (ke.li, "article" or "furniture"). These terms specify the objects that transmit impurity through physical contact.
The thread — This category of contact-impurity extends to the furniture and beds mentioned in Leviticus 15:22 and 15:24. The same principle of objects becoming unclean until evening appears in the broader purity regulations of Leviticus 15.
Why it lands — The text requires immediate recognition that physical contact with specific objects transfers ritual impurity. It demands practical compliance through washing, bathing, and waiting until evening before resuming normal religious and social activities.
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
And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even.