One of the more interesting and less-exposited chapters of the Bible :)
There are four categories given here: men losing blood irregularly (2-15), men emitting semen (16-18), women losing blood during menstruation (19-24), and women losing blood irregularly (25-30).
Typically, after an irregular discharge stops, you remain unclean for 7 days, then wash and are clean. 2 doves or pigeons are brought to the priest as a sin and burnt offering for atonement for the discharge. Exception: emission of semen resulted in uncleanliness only until evening.
In answer to the "what's this all about?" question: it seems there was a defect found in losing fluids of life (blood and semen). As a priest with a deformity couldn't minister before the Lord, so one whose body wasn't retaining fluids properly could not approach God.
The New Testament deals with this chapter in a fascinating way, in Mark 5:25-34. The woman who comes to Jesus with a flow of blood comes when everyone is "pressing against" (vs 34) Jesus. She is pushing past everyone to reach and touch him. In her uncleanness, she is making everyone around her unclean. Then Mark makes a big deal about her touching Jesus. So is HE unclean? Mark never says, but to read between the lines, Jesus IS God, and this woman approaching God is not turned away, but healed.
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