Discovery BoxLeviticus 11:35-47
Context11:35 Anything their carcass may fall on will become unclean. An oven or small stove must be smashed to pieces; they are unclean, and they will stay unclean 1 to you. 11:36 However, a spring or a cistern which collects water 2 will be clean, but one who touches their carcass will be unclean. 11:37 Now, if such a carcass falls on any sowing seed which is to be sown, 3 it is clean, 11:38 but if water is put on the seed and such a carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you.
11:39 “‘Now if an animal 4 that you may eat dies, 5 whoever touches its carcass will be unclean until the evening. 11:40 One who eats from its carcass must wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening, and whoever carries its carcass must wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. 11:41 Every swarming thing that swarms on the land is detestable; it must not be eaten. 11:42 You must not eat anything that crawls 6 on its belly or anything that walks on all fours or on any number of legs 7 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. 8 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, 9 and you are to be holy because I am holy. 11:46 This is the law 10 of the land animals, the birds, all the living creatures that move in the water, and all the creatures 11 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.’”
[11:35] 1 tn Heb “be unclean.”
[11:36] 2 tn Heb “a spring and a cistern collection of water”; NAB, NIV “for collecting water.”
[11:37] 3 tn Heb “And if there falls from their carcass on any seed of sowing which shall be sown.”
[11:39] 4 tn This word for “animal” refers to land animal quadrupeds, not just any beast that dwells on the land (cf. 11:2).
[11:39] 5 tn Heb “which is food for you” or “which is for you to eat.”
[11:42] 6 tn Heb “goes” (KJV, ASV “goeth”); NIV “moves about”; NLT “slither along.” The same Hebrew term is translated “walks” in the following clause.
[11:42] 7 tn Heb “until all multiplying of legs.”
[11:43] 8 tn Heb “by any of the swarming things that swarm.”
[11:45] 9 tn Heb “to be to you for a God.”
[11:46] 10 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.
