Bible Strands
Leviticus 11:36
Nevertheless, a spring or cistern containing water will remain clean, but one who touches a carcass in it will be unclean.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Moses and the Israelite community, extending the ritual purity regulations to stationary water sources after detailing defilement by animal carcasses.
The words — מַעְיָן (ma‘yan) identifies a natural spring, while מִקְוֶה (miqveh) specifies a collected reservoir or cistern, both designated as ritually pure until physically contacted by a dead body.
The thread — Leviticus 11:35 establishes that carcasses defile solid containers, whereas Leviticus 11:36 exempts standing water unless a carcass is placed inside it; this water-source motif later appears in Zechariah 13:1 and John 4:14 as a symbol of cleansing.
Why it lands — The text demands active avoidance of death-related contamination to preserve ritual status, requiring the reader to treat physical boundaries as non-negotiable conditions for maintaining purity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Nevertheless a fountain or pit, wherein there is plenty of water, shall be clean: but that which toucheth their carcase shall be unclean.
Cross-references
- Zechariah 13:1 “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the people of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
- John 4:14 But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”