Leviticus 20:25

25 And ye shall make a distinction between the clean and the unclean cattle, and between clean and unclean birds; and ye shall not defile your souls with cattle, or with birds, or with any creeping things of the earth, which I have separated for you by reason of uncleanness.

Leviticus 20:25 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 20:25

Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and
unclean
The ten clean ones, as Aben Ezra observes, and all the rest that are unclean, according to the law before given, ( Leviticus 11:3-8 ) , by using the one for food, and not the other, and so the Targum of Jonathan, ye shall separate between the beast which is fit for food, and that which is not fit for food: and between unclean fowls and clean;
and which the same Targum interprets, what is unfit to eat and what is fit, even all that are particularly mentioned as unclean, and not fit for food, in ( Leviticus 11:13-19 ) and all the rest not excepted to as clean and fit for food, which was one way and means God made use of to separate them from other nations, and so preserve them from their idolatrous and evil works: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or
by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground;
that is, by eating them, contrary to the command of God, which would make them abominable in his sight; see ( Leviticus 11:43 ) ; every sin or transgression of this law being so to him: which I have separated from you as unclean;
which by law he had commanded them to abstain from the use of, as clean, and not fit to be eaten.

Leviticus 20:25 In-Context

23 And walk ye not in the customs of the nations which I drive out from before you; for they have done all these things, and I have abhorred them:

24 and I said to you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you for a possession, a land flowing with milk and honey: I the Lord your God, who have separated you from all people.

25 And ye shall make a distinction between the clean and the unclean cattle, and between clean and unclean birds; and ye shall not defile your souls with cattle, or with birds, or with any creeping things of the earth, which I have separated for you by reason of uncleanness.

26 And ye shall be holy to me; because I the Lord your God holy, who separated you from all nations, to be mine.

27 And a man or woman whosoever of them shall have in them a divining spirit, or be an enchanter, let them both die the death: ye shall stone them with stones, they are guilty.