Leviticus 12: A Mother's Purification
The law of cleansing after the birth of a son or daughter.
Leviticus 12 is a short chapter between two long ones on ritual purity, moving from the dietary rules of Leviticus 11 to the case of a woman who has just given birth. It sets separate waiting periods for a male child and a female child before she may enter the sanctuary.
And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,
`Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, A woman when she giveth seed, and hath born a male, then she hath been unclean seven days, according to the days of separation for her sickness she is unclean;
and in the eighth day is the flesh of his foreskin circumcised;
and thirty and three days she doth abide in the blood of her cleansing; against any holy thing she doth not come, and unto the sanctuary she doth not go in, till the fulness of the days of her cleansing.
`And if a female she bear, then she hath been unclean two weeks, as in her separation; and sixty and six days she doth abide for the blood of her cleansing.
`And in the fulness of the days of her cleansing for son or for daughter she doth bring in a lamb, a son of a year, for a burnt-offering, and a young pigeon or a turtle-dove for a sin-offering, unto the opening of the tent of meeting, unto the priest;
and he hath brought it near before Jehovah, and hath made atonement for her, and she hath been cleansed from the fountain of her blood; this `is' the law of her who is bearing, in regard to a male or to a female.
`And if her hand find not the sufficiency of a sheep, then she hath taken two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, one for a burnt-offering, and one for a sin-offering, and the priest hath made atonement for her, and she hath been cleansed.'