Leviticus 15:9 Commentary - Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(9) And what saddle soever.—Better, and any carriage. The word here translated “saddle” only occurs twice more: viz., 1Ki. 5:6 in Hebrew, or Lev. 4:26 in English, where it is rendered “chariot” in the Authorised Version, and in Son. 3:10, where it is translated “covering” but where it manifestly denotes the seat inside the palanquin. With the feminine termination the word in question occurs no less than forty-four times, and is invariably translated in the Authorised Version “chariot.” What kind of vehicle the masculine form of the expression in question denotes in the three passages in which it occurs must be decided from the context. In Kings, the horses which are used in connection with it show that it was a carriage drawn by animals. In Canticles it is a vehicle, or the essential part of it, carried by men, and this is the kind of vehicle meant in the passage before us. It is the well-known palanquin so largely used in the East.

Shall be unclean.—The conveyance used is to be unclean, and hence, is not to be used by any one else. It will be seen that the present text does not say how long the vehicle is to be defiled, though in every other instance the time is fixed. (See Lev. 15:5-11.) There can, therefore, hardly be any doubt that the reading in the LXX., which has here until evening, is the original one, and that the words have dropped out of the Hebrew text.