Bible Strands
Leviticus 11:8
You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Moses and Aaron, delivering ritual purity regulations to the Israelite community. The command directly follows the pig's classification as unclean in Leviticus 11:7 and immediately precedes the rules for aquatic creatures in Leviticus 11:9.
The words — The verse employs בְּשָׂרָם (beśārām) for "their meat" and נִבְלָתָם (nivlātām) for "their carcasses." These terms are paired with the prohibitions לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ (lōʾ tōʾḵelû) "you must not eat" and לֹא תִגָּעוּ (lōʾ tiḡgāʿû) "you will not touch."
The thread — Contact with unclean animal remains is reiterated in Leviticus 5:2 as a cause of ritual defilement. The dietary and wash regulations are later referenced in Colossians 2:16 and Hebrews 9:10 as temporary external ordinances that pointed toward a future reform.
Why it lands — The text mandates strict avoidance of specific animal flesh and carcasses to preserve ritual purity. Readers must apply the stated boundary between clean and unclean animals as a concrete requirement for the covenant community.
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
Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.
Cross-references
- Colossians 2:16 Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath.
- Hebrews 9:10 They consist only in food and drink and special washings—external regulations imposed until the time of reform.
- Leviticus 5:2 Or if a person touches anything unclean—whether the carcass of any unclean wild animal or livestock or crawling creature—even if he is unaware of it, he is unclean and guilty.
- Isaiah 52:11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- Hosea 9:3 They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
- Matthew 15:11 A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it.”
- Matthew 15:20 These are what defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him.”
- Mark 7:2 and they saw some of His disciples eating with hands that were defiled—that is, unwashed.
- Mark 7:15 Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.”
- Mark 7:18 “Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him,