Leviticus 15:18

Lev 15:18 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.

Ver. 18. With seed of copulation.] Though lawful in itself, as being the ordinance of God. {Gen 2:24} Sin is like copperas, {a} which will turn wine or milk into ink; or leaven, which turns a very passover into pollution.

{a} A name given from early times to the protosulphates of copper, iron, and zinc (distinguished as blue, green, and white copperas respectively); etymologically it belonged properly to the copper salt; but in English use, when undistinguished by attribute or context, it has always been most commonly, and is now exclusively, applied to green copperas, the proto-sulphate of iron or ferrous sulphate (Fe Son 4:1-16), also called green vitriol, used in dyeing, tanning, and making ink.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15:18 If the seminal emission involved sexual intercourse, both the man and the woman became unclean and had to wash and remain unclean until the next evening. Although it involved a bodily emission, sexual intercourse was not an infection or abnormality, and it required no sacrifices.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. They shall both bathe themselves] What a wonderful tendency had these ordinances to prevent all excesses! The pains which such persons must take, the separations which they must observe, and the privations which, in consequence, they must be exposed to in the way of commerce, traffic, &c., would prevent them from making an unlawful use of lawful things.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) The woman also with whom man shall lie.—Better, And if a man lie with a woman, that is, even when what is specified in Lev_15:16 takes place in intercourse between man and woman lawfully married, it pollutes both the husband and the wife. They have accordingly both to immerse their whole bodies, and remain unclean till sundown, and were debarred from the privileges of the sanctuary during that day. Hence abstinence from conjugal intercourse was regarded as a necessary preparation for the performance of sacred duties. He who had approached his wife could not draw nigh to God (Exo_19:15), and was not allowed to partake of sacred meals. (Comp. 1Sa_21:5-6.) The law of pollution was not designed to put a check upon marriage, since matrimony is a Divine institution (Gen_1:27-28; Gen_2:21-25), but it is intended to prevent husband and wife from making an immoderate use of their conjugal life, and thus to preserve them in health and vigour by prescribing such constant purifications after it. This is probably the reason why other nations of antiquity enacted similar laws. Thus the Hindoos and the Babylonians bathed after conjugal intercourse. The Egyptian priests abstained from it when they had to perform sacred duties, and the laity were not allowed to enter the precincts of the Temple unless they submitted to ablutions. Mahommed, for the same reason, enjoins lustrations upon all the faithful before reciting their prayers.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. As unclean they could not take part in the service of the sanctuary. Similar limitations are found Exo_19:15; 1Sa_21:5 f.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation,.... It seems to respect any congress of a man and woman, whether in fornication or adultery, or lawful marriage, and particularly the latter; for though marriage is honourable and holy, and carnal copulation in itself lawful, yet such is the sinfulness of nature, that as no act is performed without pollution, so neither that of generation, and by which the corruption of nature is propagated, and therefore required a ceremonial cleansing:

they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even; so Herodotus (f) reports, that as often as a Babylonian man lay with his wife, he had used to sit by consecrated incense, and the woman did the same: and in the morning they were both washed, and did not touch any vessel before they had washed themselves; and he says the Arabians did the like: and the same historian relates (g) of the Egyptians, that they never go into their temples from their wives unwashed; see Exo 19:15.

(f) Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 198. (g) Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 64.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Man, or, the man, to wit, that had such an issue, which is plainly to be understood out, of the whole context. For though in some special cases, relating to the worship of God, men were to forbear the use of the marriage-bed, as Exo 19:15; 1Sa 21:4; yet to affirm that the use of it in other cases did generally defile the persons, and make them unclean till even, is contrary to the whole current of Scripture, which affirms the marriage-bed to be undefiled, Heb 13:4, to the practice of the Jews, which is a good comment upon their own laws, and to the light of nature and reason.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. They shall both bathe — There are two opinions respecting this verse. The first is, that it relates to the same pollution as Lev_15:16; the second, that it ascribes ceremonial impurity to the most intimate association of matrimony. Keil dissents from the latter opinion on grounds which seem to us insufficient. The design of this statute is doubtless not only to deter from polygamy and unlawful sexual intercourse, but also to set up a safeguard against conjugal excess, which is a sin against the law of the Creator written on the human body and mind. This verse intimates that David, in Psa_51:5, did not use an Oriental exaggeration. Pravity attaches to man from his conception to his death, unless he be sanctified throughout his “whole spirit and soul and body,” (1Th_5:23,) through faith in Christ. Every outflow of nature, even under the holiest sanctions, is not only defiled but defiling. From an impure fountain all the streams are polluting. Circumcision seems to imply that the moral impurity with which the fall of Adam had stained humanity, had concentrated itself in the sexual organs.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The third case of an issue. (cf. Exo_19:15 1Sa_21:5 1Co_7:5)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A man - Or, The man, that had such an issue, which is plainly to be understood out of the whole context. For though in some special cases relating to the worship of God, men were to forbear the use of the marriage-bed, yet to affirm that the use of it in other cases did generally defile the persons, and make them unclean till even, is contrary to the whole current of scripture, which affirms the marriage-bed to be undefiled, Heb. xiii, 4, to the practice of the Jews, which is a good comment upon their own laws, and to the light of nature and reason.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Sexual connection. "If a man lie with a woman with the emission of seed, both shall be unclean till the evening, and bathe themselves in water." Consequently it was not the concubitus as such which defiled, as many erroneously suppose, but the emission of seed in the coitus. This explains the law and custom, of abstaining from conjugal intercourse during the preparation for acts of divine worship, or the performance of the same (Exo 19:5; Sa1 21:5-6; Sa2 11:4), in which many other nations resembled the Israelites. (For proofs see Leyrer's article in Herzog's Cyclopaedia, and Knobel in loco, though the latter is wrong in supposing that conjugal intercourse itself defiled.)

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

ורחצו במים THEY SHALL BOTH LAVE THEMSELVES IN WATER — It is a decree of the King that a woman should become unclean through sexual intercourse. The reason is not because of the law of “one who touches שכבת זרע” (who, according to Leviticus 22:7 is unclean; cf. Sifra on that verse) for in her case it is מגע בית הסתרים and this does not render her unclean (Niddah 41b).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.