Holiness and Sacred Space in Israelite Religion

11:3 has a split cleft in the hoof and that chews cud Clean animals—such as cattle, goats, and sheep—have hooves split into two toes. These domesticated animals are also ruminants having a complex digestive system with a stomach of 3 or 4 chambers. Chewing their cud aids digestion. Deuteronomy 14:5 list 10 animals among wild game that also meet these criteria.

11:4 those that chew the cud Refers to the behavior in which an animal swallows its food, stores it temporarily in a stomach compartment, and later regurgitates the food to chew it more as part of the digestion process.

unclean The Hebrew term used here, tame, means “unclean” or “impure” in the sense of ritual purity, not physical cleanliness.

11:7 the pig Swine were widely domesticated in the ancient Near East, so this particular dietary restriction stood out as a mark of identity.

11:8 they are unclean for you Israelites were rendered unclean by the prohibited animals only if they ate them or touched a carcass. For example, they could still use camels without becoming unclean.

11:9 a fin and scales The lone criterion for cleanness for water creatures was whether the animal had both fins and scales. No distinction is made between freshwater and saltwater creatures.

11:11 dead body Death was a key cause of ritual uncleanness, so dead bodies had to be avoided. A similar warning appears in v. 8; further instructions related to uncleanness deriving from a carcass are given in vv. 24–28.

11:13 birds The Hebrew word used here, oph, may be literally rendered as “flying thing.” The list of birds here is nearly identical to that in Deut 14. In general, the clean birds include doves, pigeons, quail, chickens (hens), geese, duck, and sparrows. The impure birds—birds of prey or carrion-eaters—are connected with death. Unlike with the water creatures, there are no apparent biological features that mark certain birds as unclean.

11:19 bat Since the Hebrew word oph used in Lev 11:13 refers to anything that flies (see note on v. 13), the bat is not out of place in the list even though it is technically classified as a mammal, not a bird.

11:20 winged insect Flying insects are designated by the Hebrew phrase sherets ha'oph here, which may be literally rendered as “the swarming things that fly.”

11:21 jointed legs Refers to the hind legs which enable hopping and leaping. This feature marks these insects as exceptions to v. 20.

11:32 on which one of them falls The legal discussion distinguishes between things that can be fallen on and things that can be fallen into (v. 33). The first category includes vessels made of wood, leather, and certain kinds of cloth. The second category relates to ceramics which become contaminated only when something falls inside.

11:34 could be drunk in any such vessel Solid food moistened by water becomes unclean when it comes into contact with the carcass. Liquid in a vessel that becomes contaminated is also contaminated.

11:35 must be broken Stones and ovens could be rendered unclean by any contact and had to be destroyed. Numbers 31:32 indicates that metal vessels need not be destroyed; they could be purified in fire.

11:36 a spring or a cistern collecting water Water from a natural source like a spring or stored in the ground as in a cistern was not contaminated the same way as a ceramic vessel. While the water itself did not become impure, anyone removing a carcass from a spring or a cistern was rendered unclean.

11:37 it is clean A dead carcass touching a seed did not contaminate the seed.

11:38 it is unclean for you Like the moistened food in a vessel (Lev 11:34), dampened seed becomes impure through contact with a carcass.

11:44 I am holy The only rationale given for the regulations in this chapter is the requirement to emulate Yahweh’s own holiness. Here the rationale is related to the discussion about swarming creatures. In v. 45 this reason is given in a way that could be taken as a blanket statement for the entire discussion of clean and unclean creatures (compare 19:2).

11:46 This is the regulation of The final two verses of this chapter provide a concluding summary of the regulations about clean and unclean animals with special reference to whether the animals were acceptable for food.