ISSUE. L "fpn, the puerperal hxmor • : rhage (Lev. xii. 7) ; the ceremonial uncleanness caused by which had to, be atoned for and cleansed. 2. The ^yuph aipappacra who was cured by our Lord (Matt. ix. 2o ; Mark v. 25 ; Luke viii. 44) suffered from some chronic hmmorrhage, but of what kind we are not informed. It may have been excessive menstrual discharge, or it may have been severe hxmorrhoids. Whatever it was, the long continu ance of the disease indicates that it must have been periodic- in its attacks. Such a disease not only prostrated the strength of the sufferer but exposed her to a constant exclusion from the religious semblies of the Jews, as well as to an enforced celibacy. 3. 311 or Z? (` a running issue,' Lev. xv.
2 ; xxii. 4 ; an issue,' Lev. xv. 3, 8, 25, 28 ; Num. v. 2 ; 2 Sam. iii. 29), denotes, in the case of females, doubtless the ordinary ,rnenstrual dis charge, protracted, it may be, to an abnormal extent (Lev. xv. 25) ; and in the case of men either an involuntary flux of the seminal fluid, or gonorrhcea of the more virulent kind, such as is the result of impure coition. The LXX. describe the
person referred to in Lev. xv. 2 as yovo,bbinjs (cf. ver. 4, ff.); Josephus takes the same view (Antic,. iii. 1. 3 ; Bell. Iud. v. 5. 6 ; vi. 6. 9) ; and the Talmudists accord (Maimon. in Ilfishnam; Tr. Zabim ii. 2, p. vi., ed. Surenhus. p. 454). The uncleanness specified in this chapter as communi cated by the .1r seem to favour this opinion ; for when the spittle, the clothes, the seat, convey un cleanness, something of the nature of a virulent disease must be supposed. A difficulty, however, arises in the way of our supposing that the disease referred to is the gonorrhma virulenta, from the fact that this disease is supposed only to be conse quent on the lues venerea, a disease unknown, it is said, before the t5th century. This has led Winer to conclude that the disease in question is a discharge from the urethra, such as may arise from impure coition, though without any syphilitic con tagion (Realm, in voc. Sam enfluss; comp. Michaelis, Laws of Moses iv. 282; Bartholini, De morbis licis).—W. L. A.