Leviticus 11

1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

Yahweh said to Aaron and Moses/me,

2 Say to the children of Israel: These are the living things which you may have for food among all the beasts on the earth.

“Tell the Israeli people that [this is what Yahweh says]: From all the animals that live on the land, these are the ones that you are permitted to eat:

3 You may have as food any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot, and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again.

The ones that have hooves that are completely split and that (chew their cuds/bring their food up from their stomachs to chew it again).

4 But, at the same time, of those beasts, you may not take for food the camel, because its food comes back but the horn of its foot is not parted in two; it is unclean to you.

There are some animals that chew their cuds but do not have split hooves, and some animals that have split hooves but do not chew their cuds. You must not eat any of those animals. [For example], camels chew their cuds but do not have split hooves, so they are unacceptable for you to eat.

5 And the rock-badger, for the same reason, is unclean to you.

Rock badgers chew their cuds but do not have split hooves, so they are unacceptable for you to eat.

6 And the hare, because the horn of its foot is not parted in two, is unclean to you.

Rabbits chew their cuds but do not have split hooves, so they are unacceptable for you to eat.

7 And the pig is unclean to you, because though the horn of its foot is parted, its food does not come back.

Pigs have completely split hooves but they do not chew their cuds, so they are unacceptable for you to eat.

8 Their flesh may not be used for food, and their dead bodies may not even be touched; they are unclean to you.

All of those animals are unacceptable for you, so you must not eat their meat or even touch their carcasses.

9 These you may have for food of all things living in the water: anything living in the water, in the seas or rivers, which has special parts for swimming and skin formed of thin plates, may be used for food.

From all the creatures that live in the oceans and the streams, you are permitted to eat any that have fins and scales.

10 All other things living and moving in the water, in the sea or in the rivers, are a disgusting thing to you;

But you must detest [and not eat] those that do not have fins and scales. That includes ones that are very small.

11 They may not be used for food, and their dead bodies are disgusting to you.

You must despise them, and you must not eat their meat, and you must detest their carcasses.

12 Anything in the water which has no special parts for swimming and no thin plates on its skin is disgusting to you.

You must detest everything that lives in the water that does not have fins and scales.

13 And among birds these are to be disgusting to you, and not to be used for food: the eagle and the gier-eagle and the ospray;

There are some birds that you must detest [and not eat]. They include eagles, bearded vultures, black vultures,

14 And the kite and the falcon, and birds of that sort;

kites, any kind of falcon/buzzard,

15 Every raven, and birds of that sort;

any kind of raven,

16 And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk, and birds of that sort;

horned owls, screech owls, seagulls, any kind of hawk,

17 And the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl;

small owls, cormorants, large owls,

18 And the water-hen and the pelican and the vulture;

white owls, desert owls, vultures that eat dead animals,

19 The stork and the heron, and birds of that sort, and the hoopoe and the bat.

storks, any kind of heron, hoopoes, and bats.

20 Every winged four-footed thing which goes on the earth is disgusting to you;

You must detest [and not eat] flying insects that [sometimes] walk on the ground [MTY].

21 But of the winged four-footed things, those which have long legs for jumping on the earth you may have for food;

But you are permitted to eat creatures with wings that sometimes walk on the ground if they have jointed legs for hopping around.

22 Such as all the different sorts of locust.

They include locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers.

23 But all other winged four-footed things which go on the earth are disgusting to you.

But you must detest [and not eat] other insects with wings that have four legs.

24 By these you will be made unclean; anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean till evening:

‘There are certain creatures that if you touch their carcasses you will become defiled. Anyone who touches their carcasses must not touch other people until that evening.

25 Whoever takes away the dead body of one of them is to have his clothing washed, and will be unclean till evening.

Anyone who picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes and not touch other people until that evening.

26 Every beast, in the horn of whose foot there is not a complete division, and whose food does not come back, is unclean to you: anyone touching one of these will be unclean.

‘The animals whose carcasses you must not touch are those that have hooves that are not completely divided or animals that do not chew their cuds. Anyone who touches the carcasses of any of those animals becomes (defiled/unacceptable to me).

27 Any four-footed beast which goes on the ball of its foot, is unclean to you: anyone touching the dead body of one of these will be unclean till evening.

From all the animals that walk on the ground, you must not touch the carcasses of those that have paws to walk on. Anyone who touches one of their carcasses must not touch other people until that evening.

28 Anyone who takes away the dead body of one of these is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening.

Anyone who picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes and not touch other people until that evening, because touching their carcasses (defiles you/causes you to become unacceptable to me).

29 And these are unclean to you among things which go low down on the earth; the weasel and the mouse and the great lizard, and animals of that sort;

‘From all the animals that walk on the ground, these are the ones that (defile you/cause you to become unacceptable to me) [if you touch them]: Moles, rats, any kind of lizard,

30 And the ferret and the land crocodile and the lizard and the sand-lizard and the chameleon.

geckos, skinks, and chameleons.

31 All these are unclean to you: anyone touching them when they are dead will be unclean till evening.

Those creatures that scurry across the ground (defile you/cause you to become unacceptable to me); anyone who touches one of their carcasses must not touch other people until the evening.

32 The dead body of any of these, falling on anything, will make that thing unclean; if it is any vessel of wood, or clothing, or skin, or bag, whatever it is, if it is used for any purpose, it will have to be put into water, and will be unclean till evening; after that it will be clean.

When one of those creatures dies and falls on something, the thing that it falls on, whatever it is used for, will become (defiled/unacceptable to me), whether it is made of wood or cloth or the hide of some animal or from rough cloth. You must put it in water. Then you must not use it until that evening.

33 And if one of them gets into any vessel of earth, whatever is in the vessel will be unclean and the vessel will have to be broken.

If one of them falls into a clay pot, everything in it becomes defiled, and you must break that pot into pieces.

34 Any food in it, and anything on which water from it comes, will be unclean: any drink taken from such a vessel will be unclean.

If you pour water from that pot on any food, you must not eat that food. And you must not drink any water from that pot.

35 Any part of the dead body of one of these, falling on anything, will make it unclean; if it is an oven or a cooking-pot it will have to be broken: they are unclean and will be unclean to you.

Anything that one of the carcasses of those creatures falls on becomes (defiled/unacceptable to me); even if it falls on an oven or a cooking pot, anything that it falls on must be broken into pieces. It becomes unacceptable to me and you must not use it again.

36 But at the same time a fountain or a place where water is stored for use will be clean; but anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean.

If one of their carcasses falls into a spring or a pit for storing water, the water may still be drunk, but anyone who touches one of those carcasses becomes unacceptable to me.

37 If any part of the dead body of one of these gets on to any seed for planting, it is clean;

If one of those carcasses falls on seeds that are to be planted, those seeds are still acceptable to be planted.

38 But if water is put on the seed, and any part of the dead body gets on to it, it will be unclean to you.

But if water has been put on the seeds and then a carcass falls on them, the seeds must be thrown away.

39 And if any beast which may be used for food comes to a natural death, anyone touching its dead body will be unclean till evening.

‘If an animal [whose meat] you are permitted to eat dies, anyone who touches its carcass must not touch other people until that evening.

40 And he who makes use of any part of its body for food is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening; and anyone taking away its body is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening.

Anyone who eats some meat from that carcass must wash his clothes, and then he must not touch anyone until that evening.

41 Everything which goes flat on its body on the earth is disgusting, and is not to be used for food.

‘All creatures that scurry across the ground, including those that move on their bellies and those that crawl, are detestable, and they must not be eaten.

42 Whatever goes on its stomach or on four feet or has a great number of feet, even all those going flat on the earth, may not be used for food, for they are disgusting.

43 You are not to make yourselves disgusting with anything which goes about flat on the earth; you may not make yourselves unclean with them, in such a way that you are not holy to me.

Do not (defile yourselves/cause you to become unacceptable to me) by [eating] any of those creatures [DOU].

44 For I am the Lord your God: for this reason, make and keep yourselves holy, for I am holy; you are not to make yourselves unclean with any sort of thing which goes about flat on the earth.

I am Yahweh your God, and I am holy, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy. You must avoid eating things that cause you to be unacceptable to me. Do not cause yourselves to become unacceptable to me by eating creatures that scurry across the ground.

45 For I am the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; so be you holy, for I am holy.

I am Yahweh, the one who freed you from [being slaves in] Egypt, in order to be your God. Therefore, because I am holy, you must be holy.

46 This is the law about beasts and birds and every living thing moving in the waters, and every living thing which goes flat on the earth:

'Those are the regulations concerning animals and birds, all the living creatures that live in water or scurry across the ground.

47 Marking out the unclean from the clean, and the living thing which may be used for food from that which may not.

You must learn what things [I say] are acceptable to me and what things are not, and learn what things you are permitted to eat and what things you are not permitted to eat.’”