Lê-vi Ký 11

Clean and unclean animals

¹The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said to them, ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: ‘Of all the animals that live on land, these are the creatures you may eat. ³You may eat any animal that both chews the cud and has hooves split fully in two. ⁴Yet you must not eat these, even though they chew the cud or have split hooves: the camel, because it chews the cud but its hoof is not split. It is unclean for you. ⁵The rock badger chews the cud, but its hoof is not split; it is unclean for you.^{a 6}The hare also chews the cud, but its hoof is not split; it is unclean for you. ⁷The pig has hooves split fully in two, but it does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. ⁸Do not eat any of their meat, and do not touch them when they are dead. They are unclean for you. ⁹These are the water creatures you may eat: whatever has fins and scales, whether it lives in the seas or in the streams. ¹⁰But anything in the seas or streams without fins and scales, whether it is one of the small creatures that swarm in the water or any other living thing there, is to be detestable to you. ¹¹They are to remain detestable to you. Do not eat their meat, and treat their dead bodies as detestable. ¹²Whatever lives in the water without fins and scales is to be detestable to you. ¹³Among the birds, these are the ones you are to detest. They must not be eaten, because they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,^{bc 14}the red kite, the various kinds of black kite,^{d 15}every kind of raven, ¹⁶the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, the various kinds of falcon,^{ef 17}the little owl, the cormorant, the eagle owl,^{g 18}the barn owl, the desert owl, the carrion vulture,^{h 19}the stork, the various kinds of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.^{i 20}Any swarming creature with wings that also walks on all fours is to be detestable to you.

Winged swarming creatures and carcasses

²¹But you may eat some of the winged swarming creatures that walk on all fours: those that have a pair of long legs above their feet for hopping across the ground.^{j 22}Of these you may eat the following, each by its own kind: the swarming locust, the bald locust, the cricket and the grasshopper.^{k 23}Every other winged swarming creature that goes on four feet is to be detestable to you. ²⁴These too will make you unclean. Whoever touches the dead body of one of them will be unclean until evening.^{l 25}Anyone who carries any part of their dead bodies must wash their clothes, and they remain unclean until evening. ²⁶Every animal with hooves that are not split all the way through, and that does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Anyone who touches one when it is dead will become unclean.^{m 27}Every four-footed creature that walks on the pads of its feet is unclean for you. Anyone who touches the carcass of one will be unclean until evening. ²⁸Whoever carries their carcass must wash their clothes and will be unclean until evening. These animals are unclean for you.

Small creatures that swarm on the ground

²⁹Of the small creatures that swarm on the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the mouse, the various kinds of great lizard,^{n 30}the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the sand lizard and the chameleon.^{o 31}These are the swarming creatures that are unclean for you. If anyone touches one of them once it is dead, that person will be unclean until evening. ³²Anything that one of them falls on after it has died becomes unclean: any wooden object, any clothing, leather or sackcloth, any tool or article used for work. It must be dipped in water and will remain unclean until evening; after that it is clean. ³³If one of them falls inside a pot made of clay, all that is in the pot becomes unclean, and the pot itself must be smashed. ³⁴Any food that could be eaten becomes unclean if water from such a pot has come on it, and any drink in such a pot becomes unclean.^{p 35}Anything touched by part of their carcass when it falls becomes unclean. If it is an oven or a stove, it must be torn down. These are unclean, and you are to keep treating them as unclean. ³⁶Water in a spring or a cistern, where water is gathered, stays clean. But whoever touches the carcass will be unclean. ³⁷Seed for planting stays clean even if part of a carcass falls on it. ³⁸If the seed has been soaked in water, though, and part of a carcass falls on it, you must treat it as unclean.

Carcasses, and the call to be holy

³⁹When an animal of the kind you may eat dies on its own, whoever touches the carcass will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁰Someone who eats any of its carcass is to wash their clothes and will be unclean until evening. The same applies to someone who carries the carcass: they are to wash their clothes and will be unclean until evening. ⁴¹All the small creatures that swarm on the ground are detestable and are not to be eaten. ⁴²Nothing that swarms on the ground may be eaten, whether it crawls on its belly, goes on four legs, or has a great many legs. They are detestable. ⁴³Do not make yourselves detestable through any creature that swarms. Do not make yourselves unclean by them, so that you become unclean through them. ⁴⁴For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves, then. You must be holy, because I am holy. None of the creatures that creep on the ground must make you unclean. ⁴⁵For I am the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You must be holy, because I am holy. ⁴⁶These are the instructions for land animals, birds, every living creature that moves through the waters, and every creature that swarms on the ground, ⁴⁷so that you can tell the unclean from the clean, the creatures that may be eaten from those that may not.’”