Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.
Parallel translations
- WEB Of their meat you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.
- BSB You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.
- NKJV Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you.
- NASB You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.
- NLT You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses. They are ceremonially unclean for you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel must neither eat the meat nor touch the carcasses of these unclean animals. Uncleanness affects both diet and contact.
Overview
The prohibition extends from eating to touching the dead bodies, broadening the scope of practical holiness. Such daily constraints kept the reality of clean and unclean continually before the people. They taught that holiness touches every part of life, while pointing forward to the deeper cleansing of heart and conscience that comes through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Col 2:16Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
- Heb 9:10Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
- Hos 9:3They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
- Lev 5:2Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty.
- Isa 52:11Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
- Rom 14:14–17I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
- Matt 15:20These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
- Acts 10:28And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
- 2 Cor 6:17Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
- Mark 7:2And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
- Eph 5:11And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
- Mark 7:18And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
- Acts 10:10–15And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
- Mark 7:15There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
- Acts 15:29That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
- 1 Cor 8:8But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.
- Rom 14:21It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
- Eph 5:7Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
- Col 2:21–23(Touch not; taste not; handle not;
- Matt 15:11Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 11:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.