Discharge זוּב

We are moving into chapter fifteen of Leviticus with our word for today. זוּב flow, drip, suffer a discharge. It is used 42 times in the Old Testament, 24 times in our chapter. Let’s look at our chapter since it has over half of the uses of our word. Leviticus 15:1-3 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any man has a זָ֣ב discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. And this is the law of his uncleanness בְּזוֹב֑וֹfor a discharge: whether his body runs with זוֹב֗וֹhis discharge, or his body is blocked up מִזּוֹב֔וֹby his discharge, it is his uncleanness. The rest of the chapter explains the various ways one might come into contact with a man who has had a discharge. In all of these cases this is what was to be done. Leviticus 15:5 And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. The human discharge may be natural or unnatural, but it’s still considered unclean and must be dealt with according to the law of God. Personal hygiene and God’s concern for people are certainly involved in these regulations, but the main thrust seems to be that of enforcing personal sanctity. Not everybody is a leper, but all of us have occasional “discharges” that defile us and could defile others. Unnatural male discharges are covered in the first 15 verses of our chapter. These could be anything from diarrhea to discharges caused by a venereal disease. Anything the afflicted man touched or spat upon was unclean. In fact, those defiled by touching him had to wash themselves and their clothes, and they remained unclean until evening. Clay vessels that he touched were to be broken and wooden vessels washed. The possibility of infection was taken very seriously. By the goodness of the Lord, the man with a discharge could get well; when that happened, he had to wait a week and, like the cleansed leper, wash himself and his clothes. On the eighth day, he brought a sin offering and a burnt offering, but he wasn’t required to bring expensive sacrifices, since a bodily discharge wasn’t as serious as leprosy. After that, the man was free to worship the Lord and live a normal life in the camp. There are religious addictions that are quietly spread among unsuspecting people. The image is a biblical one, for Jesus warned about people like the Pharisees who pretended to be holy but were really transmitting defilement to the people who followed them (Matthew 23:25–28). In fact, Paul wrote about people in his own day whose religion was “toxic.” “Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene” (2 Timothy 2:16–17). Natural male discharges are then covered in verses 16-18. This paragraph doesn’t even suggest that sexual intercourse within marriage is impure or defiling. As the traditional marriage ceremony puts it, “God established marriage for the blessing and benefit of mankind.” Within the holy and loving bonds of marriage, the husband doesn’t defile his wife nor the wife her husband. “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Hebrews 13:4). Moses is dealing here with ceremonial uncleanness, not moral uncleanness. Since intercourse involves bodily fluids, and bodily fluids made a person unclean, the husband and wife had to take pains to wash themselves and maintain ceremonial purity. Perhaps the Lord is telling us that, even in a beautiful experience like married love, there is opportunity for our sinful nature to go to work and defile it. The Old Testament couple had to consider God as well as their own desires, and this helped sanctify their relationship. No sacrifices were required for their cleansing, only washing in water. Therefore there was no sin that needed to be atoned for.