Leviticus 11:8

8 Ye shall not eat of their flesh, and ye shall not touch their carcases; these are unclean to 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 does not chew the cud, and does not divide the hoof, this is unclean to you.

7 And the swine, because this divides the hoof, and makes claws of the hoof, and it does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.

8 Ye shall not eat of their flesh, and ye shall not touch their carcases; these are unclean to you.

9 And these what ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all things that have fins and scales in the waters, and in the seas, and in the brooks, these ye shall eat.

10 And all things which have not fins or scales in the water, or in the seas, and in the brooks, of all which the waters produce, and of every soul living in the water, are an abomination; and they shall be abominations to you.