Leviticuschapter 11
47 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Do not eat any creature that moves along the ground, whether it crawls on its belly or walks on four or more feet; for such creatures are detestable.
It stands in Be holy, for I am holy, verses 41 to 47.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Clean and unclean animals. Of beasts. The cloven-hoofed cud-chewer. Of fish. Fins and scales. Of birds. A list of the forbidden. Of flying things that go on all four. Those with legs above their feet to leap withal. The carcasses of unclean creatures defile; the rules for vessels and water and wells. ‘For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy.’ The chapter's discipline is pedagogical: holiness is practised in the ordinary. What enters the mouth, what is touched. Acts 10 lifts the dietary distinction; the holiness principle it carried remains.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- Freed slaves who had eaten what Egypt ate for four hundred years and were being sent toward a land whose inhabitants ate differently again
- Where
- The camp at Sinai, and every household table in it
- When
- Israel encamped at Sinai, immediately after the priesthood was installed. c. 1445 BC, in the second year after the Exodus, on the traditional dating that follows the book's own setting
Historical context
The speech is addressed to Moses and to Aaron together, which the previous chapter explains: Leviticus 10:10 and 10:11 had just made the priest the man who distinguishes clean from unclean and teaches the distinction to Israel.
The setting is the ordinary meal rather than the sanctuary. Nothing in the chapter requires a priest to act, and nothing in it is performed at an altar, so this is law that worked in tents and kitchens.
Every nation in this world had food customs, and most of them were tied to particular temples or castes. What is unusual here is that the rules are read out to the whole nation at once, so an ordinary herdsman knew the list as well as a priest did.
A first hearer knew what the four animals of verses 4 to 7 were and why naming them settled the question. The camel, the rock badger, the rabbit and the pig were the familiar near misses, each carrying one of the two signs, and a rule argued from its hardest cases is a rule that needs no further examples.
He also knew the difference between a clay pot and a wooden bowl in a way a modern reader has to be told. Fired clay is porous and cannot be scoured clean, which is why verse 33 breaks it while a wooden vessel is washed, and the same split runs at 6:28 and 15:12.
The gathering of water at verse 36 was a practical exemption: a spring or a cistern was a household's whole water supply, and a rule that defiled it with one dead lizard would have been unliveable.
Significance
Three times a day the nation was reminded that it belonged to someone. That was the point verses 44 and 45 make, and it is the only reason the chapter gives.
The list also did work at the boundary. A people who could not share a table with its neighbours stayed a people, and the practical effect of that was felt long before anyone wrote it down as a theory.
For a household the rules were manageable rather than crushing. Most of the second half of the chapter ends a defilement with water and the fall of evening, without a priest, without a sacrifice and without a fine.
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 11 falls in Laws of clean and unclean (chapters 11–15). Diet, childbirth, skin disease, mildew in garments and houses, bodily discharges, holiness traced through ordinary life.
Before it: Consecration of the priesthood, chapters 8–10. After it: Day of Atonement, chapters 16.
The whole shape of Leviticus→The structure of this chapter
People2
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Split hoof and chewed cudvv. 1-8
The speech is addressed to Aaron as well as to Moses, because Leviticus 10:10-11 had just made the priest the man who puts difference between clean and unclean and teaches it to Israel. Land animals are settled by a test rather than by a list, two signs held together, a parted hoof and a chewed cud. The four creatures named in verses 4 to 7 are the near misses, each carrying one sign and lacking the other, so the rule is argued from its hardest cases. Verse 8 forbids touching the carcase as well as eating the flesh, and that is where the chapter turns from diet to contact.
Leviticus 11:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron,.... The one being the chief magistrate, and the other the high priest, and both concerned to see the following laws put into execution; according to Jarchi, the Lord spoke to Moses that he might speak to Aaron; but being now in office, and one part of his office being to distinguish between clean and unclean, the following discourse is directed equally to him as to Moses: saying unto them; as follows.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Leviticus 11:1
“Yahweh speaks to Moses and Aaron conjointly. (Compare Lev 13:1; Lev 15:1.) The high priest, in regard to the legal purifications, is treated as co-ordinate with the legislator.”
Leviticus 11:2
“Rather, “These are the animals which ye may eat out of all the beasts;” that is, out of the larger creatures, the quadrupeds, as distinguished from birds and reptiles. See Gen 1:24. Of quadrupeds, those only might be eaten which completely divided the hoof and chew the cud Lev 11:3-8.”
3 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 11:2
“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying,.... For to them only belong the following laws, and not unto the Gentiles, as Jarchi rightly observes; these were parts of the ceremonial law, which was peculiarly given to them, and lay, among other things, in meats and drinks, and now abolished; for it is not what goes into a man that defiles him; nor is anything common or unclean of itself, but every creature of God is good if received with thanksgiving.”
Leviticus 11:2
“These are the beasts - Though every creature of God be good and pure in itself, yet it pleased God to make a difference between clean and unclean, which he did in part before the flood, Gen. vii, 2, but more fully here for many reasons; as, 1.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 11:2
“THE MOSAIC LAW ATTACHED great importance to meats and drinks: the Christian religion attaches none. The apostle Peter was shown by the vision of a sheet let down from heaven, not only that all nations were now to receive the gospel message, but that all kinds of food were now clean, and that all the prohibitions which had formerly been laid upon them for legal purposes were now once for all withdrawn. A Christian may, if he pleases, put himself under restrictions as to these matters.”
Leviticus 11:3
“Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed - These two words mean the same thing - a divided hoof, such as that of the ox, where the hoof is divided into two toes, and each toe is cased with horn. Cheweth the cud - Ruminates; casts up the grass, etc., which had been taken into the stomach for the purpose of mastication. Animals which chew the cud, or ruminate, are provided with two, three or four stomachs.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 11:4
“Divideth not the hoof - The toes of the camel are divided above, but they are united below in a sort of cushion or pad resting upon the hard bottom of the foot, which is “like the sole of a shoe.” The Moslems eat the flesh of the camel, but it is said not to be wholesome.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:4
“And cheweth the cud - Hebrew. and bringeth up the cud, that is, the meat once chewed, out of the stomach in the mouth again, that it may be chewed a second time for better concoction. And this branch is to be joined with the former, both properties being necessary for the allowed beasts.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 11:5
“The coney - The Old English name for a rabbit. The animal meant is the Hyrax Syriacus. It bears some resemblance to the guinea-pig or the marmot, and in its general appearance and habits Pro 30:26; Psa 104:18, it might easily be taken for a rodent. But Cuvier discovered that it is, in its anatomy, a true pachyderm, allied to the rhinoceros and the tapir, inferior to them as it is in size.”
Leviticus 11:6
“The hare - ארנבת arnebeth, as Bochart and others suppose, from ארה arah, to crop, and ניב nib, the produce of the ground, these animals being remarkable for destroying the fruits of the earth. That they are notorious for destroying the tender blade of the young corn, is well known. It is very likely that different species of these animals are included under the general terms שפן shaphan, and ארנבת arnebeth, for some travelers have observed that there are four or five sorts of these animals, which are used for food in the present day in those countries.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:6
“They only appear to be so from working the jaws on the grasses they live on. They are not cloven-footed; and besides, it is said that from the great quantity of down upon them, they are very much subject to vermin--that in order to expel these, they eat poisonous plants, and if used as food while in that state, they are most deleterious [WHITLAW].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 11:7
“He divide the hoof ... - It is cloven-footed and completely, etc. See Lev 11:3 note. Of all the quadrupeds of which the Law forbids the flesh to be eaten, the pig seems to have been regarded as the most unclean. Compare the marginal references. Several other nations have agreed with the Hebrews in this respect: the reason being that its flesh is unwholesome, especially in warm climates.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:7
“The all-wise Educator, by the lips of Moses, compared association with corrupt men to living with swine when he forbade the ancient people to partake of swine. He made it plain in those words that they who invoke God should not seek the company of the unclean who, like swine, revel in bodily pleasures and filthy habits of life and impure delights, itching for evil-minded pleasures of sex.”
Clement of Alexandria· written before 215· The Instructor Book 3patristic
Leviticus 11:8
“But since the fat and skins of some of the forbidden creatures were useful, for medicinal and other good purposes, and were used by good men, it is not probable that God would have them cast away. Thus God forbad the making of images, Exod. xx, 4, not universally, but in order to the worshipping them, as Christian interpreters agree.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Fins and scales in the watervv. 9-12
Water creatures get the shortest rule in the chapter and no names at all, only fins and scales. The wording also changes here. Land beasts were called unclean, while the creatures of the water are called an abomination, four times in three verses. The chapter makes that difference in grade and gives no ground for it.
Leviticus 11:9
“Any fish, either from salt water or fresh, might be eaten if it had both scales and fins. but no other creature that lives in the waters. Shellfish of all kinds, whether mollusks or crustaceans, and cetaceous animals, were therefore prohibited, as well as fish which appear to have no scales, like the eel; probably because they were considered unwholesome, and (under certain circumstances) found to be so.”
Leviticus 11:10
“Hence again, fish that do not have fins are forbidden from being eaten by the faithful people. For fish that have scale-fins are also accustomed to leap above the waters. What therefore is figured by finned fish except elect souls? These alone indeed pass into the body of the heavenly Church, who, supported by the fins of virtues, know how to leap through heavenly desire, so that they may reach toward things above through contemplation, although they fall back again into themselves from mortal flesh.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 31patristic
Leviticus 11:11
“They shall be even an abomination to you,.... This is repeated again and again, to deter from the eating of such fishes, lest there should be any desire after them: ye shall not eat of their flesh, here mention is made of the flesh of fishes, as is by the apostle, 1Co 15:39. Aben Ezra observes, that their wise men say, this is according to the usage of words in those ages: but you shall have their carcasses in abomination; not only abstain from eating them and touching them, but to express the utmost aversion to them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:11
“Unto you - This clause is added to shew that they were neither abominable in their own nature, nor for the food of other nations; and consequently when the partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles was taken away, these distinctions of meat were to cease.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Birds that are not to be eatenvv. 13-19
Leviticus 11:13-23
For the fowls the chapter drops the test and gives a bare list, twenty names and no criterion, so a reader learns which birds are excluded without learning what excludes them. Several of the names are argued over in translation, and the older English renderings of cuckow, swan and lapwing are read now as the gull, the water hen and the hoopoe. The Hebrew word covers winged creatures rather than a modern class, which is why the bat closes the list at verse 19. Verses 21 and 22 hold the one permission in the chapter granted out of an abominable class, four kinds of locust with legs above their feet to leap withal, and Mark 1:6 has John the Baptist living on them.
Leviticus 11:13
“As far as they can be identified, the birds here mentioned are such as live upon animal food. They were those which the Israelites might have been tempted to eat, either from their being easy to obtain, or from the example of other nations, and which served as types of the entire range of prohibited kinds. Lev 11:13 The eagle - Rather, the great vulture, which the Egyptians are known to have ranked as the first among birds.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 11:13
“He adds too that they are not to eat "kite or mastophage or eagle," meaning "You shall not go near those who make their livelihood by plundering others." He says other similar things under some sort of allegory.”
Clement of Alexandria· written before 215· The Instructor Book 3patristic
Leviticus 11:13
“Among the fowls - The true signification of the following Hebrew words is now lost, as the Jews at this day confess; which not falling out without God's singular providence may intimate the cessation of this law, the exact observation whereof since Christ came is become impossible.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 11:14
“In Egypt and perhaps in the adjoining countries also, the kite and vulture are often seen together flying in company, or busily pursuing their foul but important office of devouring the carrion and relics of putrefying flesh, which might otherwise pollute the atmosphere. after his kind--that is, the prohibition against eating it extended to the whole species.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:14
“The vulture - דאה daah, from the root to fly, and therefore more probably the kite or glede, from its remarkable property of gliding or sailing with expanded wings through the air. The דאה daah is a different bird from the דיה daiyah, which signifies the vulture. See Bochart, vol. iii., col. 195. The kite - איה aiyah, thought by some to be the vulture, by others the merlin. Parkhurst thinks it has its name from the root אוה avah, to covet, because of its rapaciousness; some contend that the kite is meant.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 11:15
“Every raven after his kind. The red raven, night raven, the water raven, river raven, wood raven, &c. this also includes crows, rooks, pies, jays, and jackdaws, &c. The raven was with the Heathens sacred to Apollo (o), is a voracious creature, and so reckoned among unclean ones, and unfit for food; nor does the care that God takes of these creatures, or the use he has made of them, contradict this; see Job 38:41. (o) Aelian. De Animal. l. 1. c. 48. & l. 7. c. 18.”
Leviticus 11:18
“The swan - תנשמת tinshemeth. The Septuagint translate the word by πορφυριωνα, the porphyrion, purple or scarlet bird. Could we depend on this translation, we might suppose the flamingo or some such bird to be intended. Some suppose the goose to be meant, but this is by no means likely, as it cannot be classed either among ravenous or unclean fowls. Bochart thinks the owl is meant. The pelican - קאת kaath.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:18
“It is solitary in its habits and, like other large aquatic birds, often flies to a great distance from its favorite haunts. the gier eagle--Being here associated with waterfowl, it has been questioned whether any species of eagle is referred to. Some think, as the original name racham denotes "tenderness," "affection," the halcyon or kingfisher is intended [CALMET].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 11:19
“The stork - חסידה chasidah, from חסד chasad, which signifies to be abundant in kindness, or exuberant in acts of beneficence; hence applied to the stork, because of its affection to its young, and its kindness in tending and feeding its parents when old; facts attested by the best informed and most judicious of the Greek and Latin natural historians. See Bochart, Scheuchzer, and Parkhurst, under the word חסד chasad. It is remarkable for destroying and eating serpents, and on this account might be reckoned by Moses among unclean birds. The heron - אנפה anaphah.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Winged crawlers and leaping locustsvv. 20-23
Leviticus 11:20
“All fowls that creep,.... Or rather "every creeping thing that flies"; for what are designed are not properly fowls, but, as the Jewish writers interpret them, flies, fleas, bees, wasps, hornets, locusts, &c. so the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, Ben Gersom, and Maimonides (y): going upon all four; that is, upon their four feet, when they walk or creep: these shall be an abomination to you; not used as food, but detested as such. (y) Maacolot Asurot, c. 2. l. 5.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:20
“All fowls that creep, &c.--By "fowls" here are to be understood all creatures with wings and "going upon all fours," not a restriction to animals which have exactly four feet, because many "creeping things" have more than that number. The prohibition is regarded generally as extending to insects, reptiles, and worms.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 11:21
“Legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth - The families of the Saltatoria, of which the common cricket, the common grasshopper, and the migratory locust, may be taken as types.”
Leviticus 11:22
“The locust - ארבה arbeh, either from ארב arab, to lie in wait or in ambush, because often immense flights of them suddenly alight upon the fields, vineyards, etc., and destroy all the produce of the earth; or from רבה rabah, he multiplied, because of their prodigious swarms. See a particular account of these insects in the notes on Exo 10:4 (note). The bald locust - סלעם solam, compounded, says Mr. Parkhurst, from סלע sala, to cut, break, and עם am, contiguity; a kind of locust, probably so called from its rugged, craggy form.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:22
“The locust - Locusts, though unusual in our food, were commonly eaten by the Ethiopians, Lybians, Parthians, and other eastern people bordering upon the Jews. And as it is certain the eastern locusts were much larger than ours, so it is probable they were of different qualities, and yielding better nourishment.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Touching a carcass makes you unclean
From here the subject is touching rather than eating, and what follows is a state rather than a punishment. The man is unclean until the even, and where he carried the carcase he washes his clothes, so time and water end it without a priest and without a sacrifice. Leviticus 5:2 takes up the case of a man who touches an unclean carcase and does not know it, and there guilt and an offering follow. Verse 27 extends the rule to beasts that go upon their paws, which Adam Clarke reads as the animals whose feet work like hands, apes and dogs and bears among them.
Leviticus 11:24
“Unclean - If the due purification was omitted at the time, through negligence or forgetfulness, a sin-offering was required. See Lev 5:2.”
Leviticus 11:27
“Whatsoever goeth upon his paws - כפיו cappaiv, his palms or hands, probably referring to those animals whose feet resemble the hands and feet of the human being, such as apes, monkeys, and all creatures of that genus; together with bears, frogs, etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 11:28
“And he that beareth the carcass of them,.... Carries it upon any account, from place to place: shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even; as he that bore the carcasses of any of the flying creeping things, Lev 11:25. they are unclean to you; even the carcasses of the one and of the other; and to all the Israelites, men, women, and children, as Aben Ezra observes.”
Eight small creatures are named, and then the rule moves from the animal to whatever it falls on when it is dead. A wooden vessel, a garment, a skin or a sack goes into water and is clean at evening, and an earthen vessel is broken instead. An oven or a set of ranges for pots is broken down on the same ground, so a thing fired out of clay is destroyed where a thing of wood is washed. The chapter states that difference between materials and leaves it unexplained.
Leviticus 11:29
The identification of “the creeping things” here named is not always certain. They are most likely those which were occasionally eaten. For the “Tortoise” read “the great lizard,” for the “ferret” the “gecko” (one of the lizard tribe), for the “chameleon” read the “frog” or the Nile lizard: by the word rendered “snail” is probably meant another kind of lizard, and by the “mole” the “chameleon.”
Leviticus 11:31
“This is a matter of essential importance in the East, where venomous reptiles often creep into houses and are found lurking in boxes, vessels, or holes in the wall; and the carcass of one of them, or a dead mouse, mole, lizard, or other unclean animal, might be inadvertently touched by the hand, or fall on clothes, skin bottles, or any article of common domestic use.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 11:32
“Any vessel of wood - Such as the wooden bowls still in use among the Arabs. Or raiment, or skin - any trunks or baskets covered with skins, another part of the furniture of an Arab tent; the goat-skins, in which they churn their milk, may be also intended. Or sack - any hair-cloth used for the purpose of transporting goods from place to place.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 11:33
“And every earthen vessel - Such pitchers as are commonly used for drinking out of, and for holding liquids. M. De la Roque observes that hair-sacks, trunks, and baskets, covered with skin, are used among the travelling Arabs to carry their household utensils in, which are kettles or pots, great wooden bowls, hand-mills, and pitchers. It is very likely that these are nearly the same with those used by the Israelites in their journeyings in the wilderness, for the customs of these people do not change.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:33
“This taught them carefully to avoid every thing that was polluting, even in their common actions. Not only the vessels of the sanctuary, but every pot in Jerusalem and Judah, must be holiness to the Lord, Zech. xiv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 11:34
“That on which such water cometh - That flesh or herbs or other food which is dressed in water, in a vessel so polluted, shall be unclean; not so, if it be food which is eaten dry, as bread, or fruits; the reason of which difference seems to be this, that the water did sooner receive the pollution in itself, and convey it to the food so dressed.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Two exemptions run against the rule just given. A spring or a cistern holding a body of water stays clean when a carcase touches it, and dry seed kept for sowing stays clean, while the same seed defiles once water has been put on it. The Hebrew phrase behind plenty of water is mikveh mayim, a gathering of water, and the Mishnah tractate Mikvaot, compiled around 200 AD, takes its name and its law of immersion pools from this verse.
Leviticus 11:36
“A fountain or pit, etc. - This must either refer to running water, the stream of which soon carries off all impurities, or to large reservoirs where the water soon purifies itself; the water in either which touched the unclean thing, being considered as impure, the rest of the water being clean.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:36
“Of this no reason can be given, but the will of the law-giver and his merciful condescension to men's necessities, water being scarce in those countries; and for the same reason God would have the ceremonial law of sacrifices, give place to the law of mercy.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 11:37
“Any sowing seed - If any part of an impure carcass fall accidentally on seed about to be sown, it shall not on that account be deemed unclean; but if the water put to the seed to prepare it for being sown, shall be touched by such impure carcass, the seed shall be considered as unclean, Lev 11:38. Probably this may be the meaning of these passages.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 11:38
“If any water - The reason of the difference is, because wet seed doth sooner receive, and longer retain any pollution and partly because such seed was not fit to be sown presently, and therefore that necessity which justified the use of the dry seed, could not be pretended in this case.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 11:39-43
An animal a man may lawfully eat still defiles the one who touches it when it dies of itself, so cleanness belongs to the living beast and ends with it. From verse 41 the ground itself is closed, and everything that creeps on it is put out of the diet. Verse 42 marks out whatsoever goeth upon the belly, which repeats the words spoken over the serpent at Genesis 3:14, and the chapter draws no line between the two places.
Leviticus 11:39
“If any beast die - Either of itself, or being killed by some wild beast, in which cases the blood was not poured forth, as it was when they were killed by men either for food or sacrifice.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 11:40
“He that eateth - Unwittingly, for if he did it knowingly, it was a presumptuous sin against an express law, Deut. xiv, 21, and therefore punished with cutting off.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Be holy, for I am holy
Leviticus 11:42
“Whatsoever goeth upon the belly - In the word גהון gahon, the vau holem, in most Hebrew Bibles, is much larger than the other letters; and a Masoretic note is added in the margin, which states that this is the middle letter of the law; and consequently this verse is the middle verse of the Pentateuch. Whatsoever hath more feet - Than four; that is, all many-footed reptiles, as well as those which go upon the belly having no feet, such as serpents; besides the four-footed smaller animals mentioned above.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
ConnectionsGenesis 3:14
Leviticus 11:43
“And thus the moral of it is obligatory on us, forbidding us to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness; and, without this real holiness of the heart and life, he that offereth an oblation is as if he offered swine's blood ( Isa. lxvi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
For I am the LORD your God: Here the chapter gives its one reason, and the reason is God rather than the animals. Ye shall be holy, for I am holy, said twice in two verses, with the deliverance out of Egypt set beside it as the ground already laid. 1 Peter 1:16 quotes that line to a church keeping none of these food rules, which is the New Testament taking up the reason and leaving the list. Ye shall be holy stands again at 19:2 and 20:26, and the sentence carries the argument of the whole book.
Leviticus 11:44
“Ye shall - sanctify yourselves - Ye shall keep yourselves separate from all the people of the earth, that ye may be holy; for I am holy. And this was the grand design of God in all these prohibitions and commands; for these external sanctifications were only the emblems of the internal purity which the holiness of God requires here, and without which none can dwell with him in glory hereafter. See at the conclusion of this chapter. The contents of this chapter must furnish many profitable reflections to a pious mind.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 11:44
“Thus these rudiments of the world were their tutors and governors ( Gal. iv. 2, 3 ), to bring them to that which is the revival of our first state in Adam and the earnest of our best state with Christ, that is, holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. This is indeed the great design of all the ordinances, that by them we may sanctify ourselves and learn to be holy.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 11:45
“His holiness is his glory ( Exod. xv. 11 ), and therefore it becomes his house for ever, Ps. xciii. This great precept, thus enforced, though it comes in here in the midst of abrogated laws, is quoted and stamped for a gospel precept, 1 Pet. i.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The closing line names the purpose as making a difference between the unclean and the clean, which puts the work of separation on the table at every meal. Why the lines fall where they do has been answered by health, which Maimonides argues in the Guide for the Perplexed around 1190, by separation from the practice of the surrounding nations, by symbolic wholeness in each creature keeping to its own element, and by the order of the creation account, and Leviticus argues none of them. Mark 7:19 closes an argument about what comes out of a man with the evangelist's own comment that he purged all meats. Acts 10:9-16 gives Peter a vision of these same creatures, and Peter says at 10:28 that God had shewed him he should call no man common or unclean.
Leviticus 11:46
“This law was to them a statute for ever, that is, as long as that economy lasted; but under the gospel we find it expressly repealed by a voice from heaven to Peter ( Acts x. 15 ), as it had before been virtually set aside by the death of Christ, with the other ordinances that perished in the using: Touch not, taste not, handle not, Col. ii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.