24 By these you will be made unclean; anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean till evening:
25 Whoever takes away the dead body of one of them is to have his clothing washed, and will be unclean till evening.
26 Every beast, in the horn of whose foot there is not a complete division, and whose food does not come back, is unclean to you: anyone touching one of these will be unclean.
27 Any four-footed beast which goes on the ball of its foot, is unclean to you: anyone touching the dead body of one of these will be unclean till evening.
28 Anyone who takes away the dead body of one of these is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening.
29 And these are unclean to you among things which go low down on the earth; the weasel and the mouse and the great lizard, and animals of that sort;
30 And the ferret and the land crocodile and the lizard and the sand-lizard and the chameleon.
31 All these are unclean to you: anyone touching them when they are dead will be unclean till evening.
32 The dead body of any of these, falling on anything, will make that thing unclean; if it is any vessel of wood, or clothing, or skin, or bag, whatever it is, if it is used for any purpose, it will have to be put into water, and will be unclean till evening; after that it will be clean.
33 And if one of them gets into any vessel of earth, whatever is in the vessel will be unclean and the vessel will have to be broken.
34 Any food in it, and anything on which water from it comes, will be unclean: any drink taken from such a vessel will be unclean.
35 Any part of the dead body of one of these, falling on anything, will make it unclean; if it is an oven or a cooking-pot it will have to be broken: they are unclean and will be unclean to you.
36 But at the same time a fountain or a place where water is stored for use will be clean; but anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean.
37 If any part of the dead body of one of these gets on to any seed for planting, it is clean;
38 But if water is put on the seed, and any part of the dead body gets on to it, it will be unclean to you.
39 And if any beast which may be used for food comes to a natural death, anyone touching its dead body will be unclean till evening.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Leviticus 11
Commentary on Leviticus 11 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 11
The ceremonial law is described by the apostle (Heb. 9:9, 10) to consist, not only "in gifts and sacrifices,' which hitherto have been treated of in this book, but "in meats, and drinks, and divers washings' from ceremonial uncleanness, the laws concerning which begin with this chapter, which puts a difference between some sorts of flesh-meat and others, allowing some to be eaten as clean and forbidding others as unclean. "There is one kind of flesh of men.' Nature startles at the thought of eating this, and none do it but such as have arrived at the highest degree of barbarity, and become but one remove from brutes; therefore there needed no law against it. But there is "another kind of flesh of beasts,' concerning which the law directs here (v. 1-8), "another of fishes' (v. 9-12), "another of birds' (v. 13-19), and "another of creeping things,' which are distinguished into two sorts, flying creeping things (v. 20-28) and creeping things upon the earth (v. 29-43). And the law concludes with the general rule of holiness, and reasons for it (v. 44, etc.).
Lev 11:1-8
Now that Aaron was consecrated a high priest over the house of God, God spoke to him with Moses, and appointed them both as joint-commissioners to deliver his will to the people. He spoke both to Moses and to Aaron about this matter; for it was particularly required of the priests that they should put a difference between clean and unclean, and teach the people to do so. After the flood, when God entered into covenant with Noah and his sons, he allowed them to eat flesh (Gen. 9:3), whereas before they were confined to the productions of the earth. But the liberty allowed to the sons of Noah is here limited to the sons of Israel. They might eat flesh, but not all kinds of flesh; some they must look upon as unclean and forbidden to them, others as clean and allowed them. The law in this matter is both very particular and very strict. But what reason can be given for this law? Why may not God's people have as free a use of all the creatures as other people?
Lev 11:9-19
Here is,
Lev 11:20-42
Here is the law,
Lev 11:43-47
Here is,