ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Leviticus 11

Lev. 11:1–15:33 The Laws on Cleanness and Uncleanness. Chap­ter 11 deals with foods that are clean and may be eaten, and foods that are unclean and may not be eaten. Chapter 12 addresses cleanliness and purification after childbirth. Chapters 13–14 provide regulations concerning cleanliness in matters of fungi, skin diseases, and infections. Chapter 15 considers bodily discharges that may make a person unclean. These five chapters define what is clean and unclean for Israel in God’s sight.

Lev. 11:1–47 The reason a particular creature is called either clean or unclean has puzzled commentators throughout the ages. Yet the purpose of these laws is clear: to help Israel, as God’s holy people, see the difference between ritual cleanness and ritual uncleanness (vv. 46–47). Seeing these differences in the ritual realm would constantly remind the people that they need to make such distinctions in the moral realm as well. Further, obeying these food laws expresses Israel’s devotion to the Lord: just as God separated the Israelites from the other nations, so they must separate clean from unclean foods (20:24–26). This is why the restrictions can be removed in Acts 10:9–28, when the Jew vs. Gentile distinction is no longer relevant in defining the people of God (see also Mark 7:18–19; Col. 2:16–23). A “clean” animal is one “permitted” as food (Lev. 11:2). See the parallel list in Deut. 14:3–21.

Lev. 11:1–8 The laws regarding clean vs. unclean animals permit Israel to eat hoofed mammals with two functional toes, including domestic beasts such as sheep, goats, and cattle, and wild ones such as antelopes (compare Deut. 14:4–5). On the other hand a horse is not clean, because it has only one toe. What these animals eat is apparently not the basis of their cleanness or uncleanness. The camel, rock badger (hyrax), and hare are exclusively vegetarian, but they are considered unclean. The pig is the only animal in this list that is not strictly vegetarian. Many of the clean aquatic creatures (Lev. 11:9–12) are carnivorous.

Lev. 11:9–12 The requirement of fins and scales limits the clean aquatic animals to what modern zoologists would call fish.

Lev. 11:13–19 Almost all the unclean birds are predators and carrion-eaters (that is, they touch dead creatures and consume blood). The term translated “bird” covers a variety of creatures that fly (see esv footnote), and can include the bat.

Lev. 11:20–23 If the winged insects have an ability to leave the ground, they are clean. For the locust and grasshopper as allowable food, compare the diet of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4).

Lev. 11:24–28 The law gradually introduces the theme of death as a defiling force (see “carcasses” in vv. 8, 11).

Lev. 11:29–35 Not only are these creatures unclean for food, but touching them when they are dead will also defile a person.

Lev. 11:36–38 The water in a spring or a cistern was not contaminated by an unclean creature that fell into it. This may have been because the water in them was flowing and continuously refreshed. Or, the law may have allowed this concession because water was in such short supply in Palestine.

Lev. 11:39–40 Even the clean animals cause defilement after they have died.

Lev. 11:44–45 For I am the Lord. This is the first occurrence of this phrase in Leviticus, but it occurs frequently from ch. 18 on. for I am holy. Compare 19:2; 20:26; 21:8. The Lord, who is holy, calls his people to consecrate themselves and to be holy. Compare 20:7–8 and note. who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. God’s people should pursue holiness in response to his gracious actions on their behalf.