Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Leviticus 15:18 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 18. 18The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse assigns the same temporary status and bathing to both sexual partners.
Read It With
- Leviticus 15:16-18
Read through 15:16-18 and watch how each actor, material, status, or command relates. Leviticus 15:18 assigns the same temporary status and bathing to both sexual partners; the whole unit establishes this: A seminal emission requires washing and evening waiting, affected clothing is washed, and consensual intercourse gives both partners the same temporary status.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Leviticus places this unit within the discharge sequence, which distinguishes ordinary and prolonged conditions, washing and waiting, sexual contact, and sanctuary danger. Its particular contribution is: A seminal emission requires washing and evening waiting, affected clothing is washed, and consensual intercourse gives both partners the same temporary status. Within that movement, this verse assigns the same temporary status and bathing to both sexual partners.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens the particular procedure, case, scene, or instruction named “Semen and intercourse bring temporary evening impurity.”
- A seminal emission requires washing and evening waiting, affected clothing is washed, and consensual intercourse gives both partners the same temporary status.
- The unit closes with this interpretive boundary: Temporary ritual status is not sexual shame, infertility advice, or a claim that marital sex is sinful.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Leviticus 15:18 does not turn its distinct contribution—assigns the same temporary status and bathing to both sexual partners—into a free-standing rule; temporary ritual status is not sexual shame, infertility advice, or a claim that marital sex is sinful.
What Remains True
Assigns the same temporary status and bathing to both sexual partners. Within Leviticus 15:16-18, this contributes to the larger claim that a seminal emission requires washing and evening waiting, affected clothing is washed, and consensual intercourse gives both partners the same temporary status.
How It Can Shape Life
- When teaching Leviticus 15:18, keep the verse inside Leviticus 15:16-18. Hold this boundary: Temporary ritual status is not sexual shame, infertility advice, or a claim that marital sex is sinful. Apply only the noncoercive truth the complete unit supports.
Teach It Back
Explain Leviticus 15:18's contribution to Leviticus 15:16-18. Name the category involved, what the surrounding verses add, any material uncertainty, and what the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Leviticus 15:16-18 — Semen and intercourse bring temporary evening impuritySources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Interpreters disagree over the system's symbolic logic, compositional layers, health effects, ancient practice, species and condition identifications, sanctuary-contamination models, and the relation of removable ritual status to wrongdoing. No one model explains every rule without remainder.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Leviticus 15:16-18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 15:16-18
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Leviticus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2025-12-31
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 15:16-18
Open source ↗