Sex During Menstruation

I. God hates it.

Although we are not under the law (Galatians), there is much to be learned from the law.

Indeed the marriage bed is undefiled (Hebrews 13:4), but there is something that can defile the marriage bed. Besides "strangers with you" (Proverbs 5:17), sexual intercourse during menstruation also defiles. Even though Leviticus 18:19 is in the law, and Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes (Romans 10:4), it nonetheless reveals that sex during menstruation is still an abomination to God.

Several other sins are listed off in Leviticus 18, uncovering the nakedness of near of kin, marrying a woman to rival her sister, adultery, idolatry, homosexuality, and bestiality. These are all identified as things that defile and are things that God still hates. Yah declares,

Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled), lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you. For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore you shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves by them: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 18:24-30)

Before this law was given to Moses (Leviticus 18:1), the nations and their land had already been defiled by these things, and the land had already vomited out nations that practiced them. This makes it clear, that these practices, which includes sex during menstruation, are, according to God, evil (i.e. sinful), and He viewed them as evil before the law was given to Moses.

Furthermore, the decree God gave the Israelites for anyone who had sex during the menstrual cycle was death.

If a man lies with a woman during her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from their people. (Leviticus 20:18)

"Cut off" = put to death (see e.g. Exodus 31:14; Leviticus 20:1-5; Daniel 9:26).The Lord obviously takes this very seriously and instructed the Israelites to kill anyone who did such a thing.

Ezekiel 18 further reveals that sex during menses is indeed ungodly. Notice how the Lord describes a "just" man (vs 9) in Ezekiel 18:5-9:

But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right; if he has not eaten on the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, nor approached a woman during her impurity; (Ezekiel 18:5-6)

Along with several other things that depict a "just" (righteous) man, is one who does not approach "a woman during her impurity." God says this man "shall surely live!" (Ezekiel 18:9) Conversely, after this the Lord says if this just man,

begets a son who is a robber or a shedder of blood, who does any of these things . . . (Ezekiel 18:10)

What is in view with the words, "who does any of these things"? One of those things is approaching "a woman during her impurity." God says of this man,

If he has done any of these abominations, he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:13)

The death God speaks of here is one of eternal death (Revelation 20:14). This is made clear later in the chapter where He says,

"The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself."

"But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?"

"But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die." (Ezekiel 18:20-24)

All men die, the righteous and the wicked (Ecclesiastes 2:14-16; 9:2-3), but not all men will be dead (Matthew 22:31-32; John 8:51; 11:26). The Lord is not speaking of simply physical death in Ezekiel 18. He is indicating their eternal home, life or death (Isaiah 66:24). Sexual intercourse during a period is a serious matter.

So, how long should one wait? In the law, the woman was unclean for seven days (Leviticus 12:2). This is a typical cycle, somewhere around seven days for it to be complete. Leviticus 20:18 describes the concern to be with the flow of blood. Actually, the answer to how long one should wait is quite simple. When the period is over, when there is no blood flow, then clearly there is no abomination before God if sexual intercourse is resumed (Hebrews 13:4).

In addition, God's view of menstruation, even though He is the one who made it (Romans 11:36), is not one of pleasantries. He uses the woman's monthly cycle as an illustration of severe disgust and hatred. Ezekiel 36:17 illustrates this:

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. (note also verse 18)

Israel's sin was seriously wicked (e.g. 2 Kings 17:7-18), and the Lord hated their ways so much, He likened it to menses.¹

Even men's own righteousness God likens to a rag of menstruations.

But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; (Isaiah 64:6; in the Hebrew text it is Isaiah 64:5)

A more literal translation of this is, "all our righteousnesses are like a rag of periods." The Hebrew word בֶגֶד (beged) for "rag" (or "rags" as the NKJV has it) is actually in the singular, and the Hebrew word עִדִּים (`iddiym) translated "filthy" is actually in the plural, and is more akin to our word "period" or "time" than "filthy" (see Lexicons, Brown, Driver, and Briggs, p. 723 or Koehler and Baumgartner, p. 790).

IV. Conclusion