John Gill Commentary Leviticus 15

And the Lord spoke to Moses, and to Aaron
Aaron is spoken to as well Moses, because some of these purifications, afterwards mentioned, depended on the priest, as the affair of profluvious men and women, as Gersom observes:

saying ;
as follows.

Speak unto the children of Israel
From which we learn, says the above mentioned writer, that these uncleannesses were only usual among the children of Israel, not among the Gentiles; that is, the laws respecting them were only binding on the one, and not on the other ^F19 :

and say unto them, when any man ;
in the Hebrew text it is, "a man, a man", which the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases, a young man, and an old man:

has a running issue out of his flesh ;
what physicians call a "gonorrhoea", and we, as in the margin of our Bibles, "the running of the reins":

[because of] his issue, he is unclean ;
in a ceremonial sense, though it arises from a natural cause; but if not from any criminal one, from a debauch, but from a strain, or some such like thing, the man was not defiled, otherwise he was; the Targum of Jonathan is,

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: So Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Edaiot, c. 5. sect. 1.
• F20: Zabim, c. 1. sect. 1. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue
Or the sign of it, by which it may be judged whether he is unclean by it or no:

whether his flesh run with his issue ;
or salivates, or emits a flow of matter like a saliva, or in the manner of spittle:

or his flesh be stopped from his issue ;
with it, or because of it; because it is gross, as Jarchi says, it cannot come forth freely:

it [is] his uncleanness ;
whether it be one or the other, he is reckoned on account of it an unclean person. This was an emblem of the corruption and vitiosity of nature, and of all evil things that are in or flow out of the evil heart of man, which are defiling to him; see (Matthew 15:18Matthew 15:19) .

Every bed whereon he lies that has the issue is unclean
Which he constantly makes use of; so the Targum of Jonathan, which is peculiar to him, and appointed and appropriated for him to lie upon. Jarchi says, every bed that is fit to lie upon, you are appropriated to another service; but, he adds meaning is, which he shall lie upon (or continue to lie upon); for it is not said, which he has laid upon, but which he lies upon, and is used by him continually; according to the Misnah ^F21 , a man that has an issue defiles a bed five ways, so as to defile a man, and to defile garments; standing, sitting, lying, hanging, and leaning:

and everything whereon he sits shall be unclean ;
which is appropriated to sit upon; and so the Targum, as before, what is his proper peculiar seat, what he is used to sit upon, and is fit for that purpose: and it is observed by some Jewish writers ^F23 that a vessel that is not fit to sit upon is excluded, as if a man was to turn up a bushel, or any other measure, to sit upon it; see (Titus 1:15) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F21: Zabim, c. 2. sect. 4.
• F23: Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Niddah, c. 6. sect. 3.

And whosoever toucheth his bed
Is unclean. According to the Misnah ^F24, a bed defiles a man seven ways, so as to defile garments; standing, sitting, lying, hanging, and leaning, and by touching, and by bearing:

shall wash his clothes, and bathe [himself] in water;
in forty seahs of water, as the Targum of Jonathan:

and be unclean until the even;
be unfit for conversation with other men till the even, though both his body and clothes are washed.

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: Zabim, ut supra. (c. 2. sect. 4.)