Leviticus 11:1-8
God calls His people to discernment and obedience in daily life by distinguishing between what is clean and what is unclean.
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them,
2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the living things which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth.
3 Whatever parts the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and chews the cud among the animals, that you may eat.
4 “ ‘Nevertheless these you shall not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those who part the hoof: the camel, because it chews the cud but doesn’t have a parted hoof, is unclean to you.
5 The hyrax, because it chews the cud but doesn’t have a parted hoof, is unclean to you.
6 The hare, because it chews the cud but doesn’t have a parted hoof, is unclean to you.
7 The pig, because it has a split hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you.
8 You shall not eat their meat. You shall not touch their carcasses. They are unclean to you.
God calls His people to discernment and obedience in daily life by distinguishing between what is clean and what is unclean.
This passage begins the dietary purity laws by establishing the criteria that determine which land animals Israel may eat and which are unclean. The instructions teach Israel how to distinguish between clean and unclean animals as part of their covenant life.
Leviticus 11:1-8 begins the clean and unclean instruction section after the priestly inauguration and crisis of Leviticus 8-10. Leviticus 10:10 commanded priests to distinguish between holy and common and between unclean and clean. Leviticus 11 now provides the first major body of clean/unclean instruction, beginning with land animals.
Leviticus 11:1-8 is set at Sinai after the tabernacle has been built, the priesthood has been ordained and inaugurated, and the priestly crisis of Nadab and Abihu has occurred. Israel is the LORD's covenant people, being taught how to live as a holy nation in the LORD's presence. The food laws distinguish Israel's daily life from common instinct and from the nations around them. The instruction concerns ordinary eating and carcass contact rather than altar sacrifice. Yet it is still worship-related because Israel's daily life is lived before the holy LORD. The LORD speaks to Moses and Aaron, who are to speak to the Israelites. Priestly instruction serves the whole covenant community. Clean and unclean categories regulate food, contact, bodily states, worship participation, and access to holy things. Land animals are classified by physical criteria: chewing the cud and having a completely divided hoof. This passage begins the major clean/unclean section of Leviticus 11-15 and demonstrates how Israel's holiness vocation enters ordinary bodily life.
Clean and Unclean Creatures: Holiness in Daily Life
The holy LORD trains His redeemed people to distinguish clean from unclean in daily life so that their ordinary existence reflects His holy claim upon them.