Issue of Blood
The phrase covers two distinct registers in scripture: the Mosaic legislation governing a woman's bodily discharge of blood, and the gospel scene of a woman healed of a twelve-year hemorrhage by touching the edge of Jesus' garment.
The Mosaic Legislation
Leviticus places the issue of blood in the broader law of bodily impurities. The regular case is the menstrual cycle: "And if a woman has a [genital] discharge, [and] her discharge in her flesh is blood, she will be in her impurity seven days: and whoever touches her will be unclean until the evening" (Lev 15:19). Bed and seat carry the impurity to anyone who comes in contact (Lev 15:20-23), and intercourse during the period transfers the impurity to the man for seven days (Lev 15:24).
Beyond the regular cycle, Leviticus distinguishes a longer or off-cycle bleeding: "And if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days not in the time of her impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity; all the days of the discharge of her uncleanness she will be as in the days of her impurity: she is unclean" (Lev 15:25). The same household contagions apply (Lev 15:26-27). When the discharge stops, a seven-day count is reset, and on the eighth day she brings "two turtledoves, or two young pigeons" to the priest at the tent of meeting; he offers one as a sin-offering and the other as a burnt-offering, "and the priest will make atonement for her before Yahweh for the discharge of her uncleanness" (Lev 15:28-30).
The Woman in the Crowd
The gospels narrate the case of a woman whose discharge had run twelve years — a chronic uncleanness under the Levitical category. Mark's account: "And a woman, who had a discharge of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and had not been getting better, but rather grew worse, having heard about Jesus, came in the crowd behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch but his garments, I will be made whole. And immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague" (Mr 5:25-29).
Luke's parallel keeps the same shape — the years, the physicians, the touch of "the border of his garment," the immediate stopping of the discharge (Lu 8:43-44). The added element is Jesus' awareness of what had passed between them: "But Jesus said, Someone did touch me; for I perceived that power had gone forth from me" (Lu 8:46). The woman, drawn out of hiding, makes her confession in front of the crowd, and Jesus dismisses her with words that name what cured her: "Daughter, your faith has made you whole; go in peace" (Lu 8:48).