Leviticus 15:18

18. They shall both bathe There are two opinions respecting this verse. The first is, that it relates to the same pollution as Leviticus 15:16; the second, that it ascribes ceremonial impurity to the most intimate association of matrimony. Keil dissents from the latter opinion on grounds which seem to us insufficient. The design of this statute is doubtless not only to deter from polygamy and unlawful sexual intercourse, but also to set up a safeguard against conjugal excess, which is a sin against the law of the Creator written on the human body and mind. This verse intimates that David, in Psalms 51:5, did not use an Oriental exaggeration. Pravity attaches to man from his conception to his death, unless he be sanctified throughout his “whole spirit and soul and body,” (1 Thessalonians 5:23,) through faith in Christ. Every outflow of nature, even under the holiest sanctions, is not only defiled but defiling. From an impure fountain all the streams are polluting. Circumcision seems to imply that the moral impurity with which the fall of Adam had stained humanity, had concentrated itself in the sexual organs.