Leviticus 11:8

8 You must not eat from their meat, and you must not touch their dead body--they are unclean for you.

Leviticus 11:8 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 11:8

Of their flesh shall ye not eat
Meaning, not of swine only, but of the camel, coney, and hare:

and their carcass shall ye not touch;
which must not be understood of touching them in any sense; for then it would have been unlawful for a Jew to have rode upon a camel, or to take out and make use of hog's lard in medicine; but of touching them in order to kill them, and prepare them for food, and eat them; and indeed all unnecessary touching of them is forbidden, lest it should bring them to the eating of them; though perhaps it may chiefly respect the touching of them dead:

they [are] unclean to you:
one and all of them; for as this was said of each of them in particular, so now of all of them together; and which holds good of all wild creatures not named, to whom the description above belongs, and which used to be eaten by other nations; some of which were called Pamphagi, from eating all sorts, and others Agriophagi, from eating wild creatures, as lions, panthers, elephants {l}

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Plin. l. 6. c. 30. Solinus, c. 43.

Leviticus 11:8 In-Context

6 and the hare, because it [is] a chewer of cud but it does not have a hoof that is divided--it [is] unclean for you;

7 and the pig, because it has a divided hoof and has a split cleft in the hoof but it does not chew cud--it [is] unclean for you.

8 You must not eat from their meat, and you must not touch their dead body--they are unclean for you.

9 " 'These you may eat from all that [are] in the water: any in the water that has a fin and scales, [whether] in the seas or in the streams--such you may eat.

10 But any that does not have a fin and scales, [whether] in the seas or in the streams, {among} all the water's swarmers among all the living creatures that [are] in the water--they [are] a detestable thing to you.