Male Bodily Discharges

1The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. 3Now this is his uncleanness in regard to his discharge – whether his body secretes his discharge or blocks his discharge, he is unclean. All the days that his body has a discharge or his body blocks his discharge, this is his uncleanness.

4“‘Any bed the man with a discharge lies on will be unclean, and any furniture he sits on will be unclean. 5Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 6The one who sits on the furniture the man with a discharge sits on must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 7The one who touches the body of the man with a discharge must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 8If the man with a discharge spits on a person who is ceremonially clean, that person must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 9Any means of riding the man with a discharge rides on will be unclean. 10Anyone who touches anything that was under him will be unclean until evening, and the one who carries those items must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 11Anyone whom the man with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 12A clay vessel which the man with the discharge touches must be broken, and any wooden utensil must be rinsed in water.

Purity Regulations for Male Bodily Discharges

13“‘When the man with the discharge becomes clean from his discharge he is to count off for himself seven days for his purification, and he must wash his clothes, bathe in fresh water, and be clean. 14Then on the eighth day he is to take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and he is to present himself before the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent and give them to the priest, 15and the priest is to make one of them a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. So the priest is to make atonement for him before the Lord for his discharge.

16“‘When a man has a seminal emission, he must bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until evening, 17and he must wash in water any clothing or leather that has semen on it, and it will be unclean until evening. 18When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman and there is a seminal emission, they must bathe in water and be unclean until evening.

Female Bodily Discharges

19“‘When a woman has a discharge and her discharge is blood from her body, she is to be in her menstruation seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. 20Anything she lies on during her menstruation will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 22Anyone who touches any furniture she sits on must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 23If there is something on the bed or on the furniture she sits on, when he touches it he will be unclean until evening, 24and if a man actually has sexual intercourse with her so that her menstrual impurity touches him, then he will be unclean seven days and any bed he lies on will be unclean.

25“‘When a woman’s discharge of blood flows many days not at the time of her menstruation, or if it flows beyond the time of her menstruation, all the days of her discharge of impurity will be like the days of her menstruation – she is unclean. 26Any bed she lies on all the days of her discharge will be to her like the bed of her menstruation, any furniture she sits on will be unclean like the impurity of her menstruation, 27and anyone who touches them will be unclean, and he must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

Purity Regulations from Female Bodily Discharges

28“‘If she becomes clean from her discharge, then she is to count off for herself seven days, and afterward she will be clean. 29Then on the eighth day she must take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons and she must bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, 30and the priest is to make one a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. So the priest is to make atonement for her before the Lord from her discharge of impurity.

Summary of Purification Regulations for Bodily Discharges

31“‘Thus you are to set the Israelites apart from their impurity so that they do not die in their impurity by defiling my tabernacle which is in their midst. 32This is the law of the one with a discharge: the one who has a seminal emission and becomes unclean by it, 33the one who is sick in her menstruation, the one with a discharge, whether male or female, and a man who has sexual intercourse with an unclean woman.’”