Bodily Discharges: This chapter is the final one to offer explicit instructions on hygiene, specifically concerning bodily emissions or discharges. It leads to the description of the ritual of the Day of Atonement, which offers a way to remove impurity.

These discharges cause impurity, but impurity that does not last very long. Wenham has raised the possibility that chapters 11–15 are organized according to the duration of the impurity, from longest to shortest (Leviticus, p. 216). Chapter 15 itself seems to be organized according to that principle. First come male discharges and then female discharges. The description of male discharges begins with those of longer duration and moves to those of shorter duration; the description of female discharges follows in reverse order. This structure …