Leviticus 11:42-47

11:42 You must not eat anything that crawls ¹  on its belly or anything that walks on all fours or on any number of legs ²  of all the swarming things that swarm on the land, because they are detestable. 11:43 Do not make yourselves detestable by any of the swarming things. ³  You must not defile yourselves by them and become unclean by them, 11:44 for I am the Lord your God and you are to sanctify yourselves and be holy because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any of the swarming things that creep on the ground, 11:45 for I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, ⁴  and you are to be holy because I am holy. 11:46 This is the law ⁵  of the land animals, the birds, all the living creatures that move in the water, and all the creatures ⁶  that swarm on the land, 11:47 to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between the living creatures that may be eaten and the living creatures that must not be eaten.’”

¹ tn Heb “goes” (KJV, ASV “goeth”); NIV “moves about”; NLT “slither along.” The same Hebrew term is translated “walks” in the following clause.

² tn Heb “until all multiplying of legs.”

³ tn Heb “by any of the swarming things that swarm.”

⁴ tn Heb “to be to you for a God.”

⁵ sn The Hebrew term translated “law” (תוֹרָה, torah) introduces here a summary or colophon for all of Lev 11. Similar summaries are found in Lev 7:37-38; 13:59; 14:54-57; and 15:32-33.

⁶ tn Heb “for all the creatures.”