Bible Strands
Leviticus 11:43
Do not defile yourselves by any crawling creature; do not become unclean or defiled by them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Moses to the Israelite community, issuing direct purity regulations during the wilderness period. The command functions as an immediate boundary marker for the people's ritual conduct.
The words — תְּשַׁקְּצוּ (te.sha.ke.Tzu) means "you make detestable," paired with נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם (naf.sho.tei.Khem), meaning "your selves." The syntax commands the audience to actively avoid rendering their own persons ritually unclean through contact with these animals.
The thread — The restriction against defilement by crawling creatures appears in Leviticus 11:41-42 and Leviticus 20:25. Leviticus 11:41 explicitly forbids eating ground-moving creatures, while Leviticus 20:25 adds the command to distinguish between clean and unclean animals.
Why it lands — The text demands physical separation from specified animals to preserve ritual purity status. It requires the reader to treat dietary contact as a direct threat to covenant standing, demanding immediate compliance without exception.
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
Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 20:25 You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.
- Leviticus 11:41 Every creature that moves along the ground is detestable; it must not be eaten.