Imamat 12:4

12:4 Then she will remain ¹  thirty-three days in blood purity. ²  She must not touch anything holy and she must not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. ³ 

Imamat 20:3

20:3 I myself will set my face ⁴  against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, ⁵  because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. ⁶ 

Imamat 21:23

21:23 but he must not go into the veil-canopy ⁷  or step forward to the altar because he has a physical flaw. Thus ⁸  he must not profane my holy places, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

[12:4]  ¹ tn Heb “sit, dwell” (יָשָׁב, yashav) normally means “to sit, to dwell”), but here it means “to remain, to stay” in the same condition for a period of time (cf., e.g., Gen 24:55).

[12:4]  ² tn Heb “in bloods of purification” or “purifying” or “purity”; NASB “in the blood of her purification”; NRSV “her time of blood purification.” See the following note.

[12:4]  ³ tn The initial seven days after the birth of a son were days of blood impurity for the woman as if she were having her menstrual period. Her impurity was contagious during this period, so no one should touch her or even furniture on which she has sat or reclined (Lev 15:19-23), lest they too become impure. Even her husband would become impure for seven days if he had sexual intercourse with her during this time (Lev 15:24; cf. 18:19). The next thirty-three days were either “days of purification, purifying” or “days of purity,” depending on how one understands the abstract noun טֹהֳרָה (toharah, “purification, purity”) in this context. During this time the woman could not touch anything holy or enter the sanctuary, but she was no longer contagious like she had been during the first seven days. She could engage in normal everyday life, including sexual intercourse, without fear of contaminating anyone else (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 73-74; cf. J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:749-50). Thus, in a sense, the thirty-three days were a time of blood “purity” (cf. the present translation) as compared to the previous seven days of blood “impurity,” but they were also a time of blood “purification” (or “purifying”) as compared to the time after the thirty-three days, when the blood atonement had been made and she was pronounced “clean” by the priest (see vv. 6-8 below). In other words, the thirty-three day period was a time of “blood” (flow), but this was “pure blood,” as opposed to the blood of the first seven days.

[20:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “And I, I shall give my faces.”

[20:3]  ⁵ sn On the “cut off” penalty see the notes on Lev 7:20 and 17:4.

[20:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “for the sake of defiling my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.”

[21:23]  ⁷ sn See the note on Lev 16:2 for the rendering “veil-canopy.”

[21:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.