Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the animals which ye shall eat of all the beasts which are on the earth.
Leviticus 11 moves from the priests and their sacrifices to the everyday table. God tells Israel which creatures they may eat, and the question raised is not what is healthy but what is holy.
Why should God care what is on the plate? One writer starts with what eating pictures.
Eating here as elsewhere is emblematic of communion. One appropriates what is thus taken in. But sin has entered, with all the disorders that follow. So God gives His people His gracious and wise direction. He does not leave them to themselves and to the changing whims of independent judgment.
Many people explain these rules as an ancient health code. One writer points instead to what food does to the person who eats it.
Spiritually, our food declares our character, as it also forms it. He who eats Christ shall not only live by Him, but His life will be practically shaped to His also. So in what is here permitted to be the food of the people of God, we find pictured the spiritual life of the people of God... Still, the matter of health is never brought forward. The law does not deal with what is wholesome or unwholesome, but with what is clean or unclean.
The verses that follow name two features of a clean animal. As a picture, they cover the inside and the outside of a life.
The chewing of the cud expresses the natural process of inwardly digesting what one eats. The divided hoof sets out the character of one's outward walk. The one who feeds on the green pastures of the Word of God and inwardly digests what he takes in — the one who is enabled to combine calm meditation with prayerful study — will without doubt show that character of outward walk. It is to the praise of Him who has graciously given us His word to form our habits and govern our ways.
One mark alone was never enough, and both were seen perfectly in one Person:
When an animal had both marks it was clean and could be eaten. If only one of them was found, it had to be rejected completely, however attractive it might otherwise seem... Both these were strikingly and perfectly set out in Jesus the Son of God. His fellowship with God knew not a moment's interruption until He was made sin and a sacrifice for us on the cross... From these clean beasts, then, we are taught to gather up spiritual food. We are also taught to go over it, portion by portion, in meditation, so that it may be effective for present comfort and strength in the walk.
Nothing in the forbidden animals was wrong in itself. The limits belonged to one nation, in one era, and were later lifted.
Since the flood God has never commanded man to be a vegetarian. After the flood He told Noah, "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you" (Gen. 9:3)... However, under law, and under law only, God put strict limits on what animals, birds or water creatures Israel could eat. He never laid these laws on the Gentiles, but only on Israel. He forbade some of them only because of a spiritual significance, not because there was any evil in the creature itself. We see this in Acts 10:9-15 and Acts 10:28... the sacrifice of Christ cleanses all who trust Him as Saviour, whether Jews or Gentiles. So God has removed the barrier between clean and unclean animals, and "everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving" (1 Tim. 4:4).
Another writer draws a further lesson from these rules:
The law not only places man at a distance from God and makes him aware of it. It is also meant to teach him the great difference between standing on the ground of keeping the law and standing on the ground of grace.
The preceding chapters put Israel close to God. This one asks what that closeness rules out.
We have seen how God has in grace associated us with His dear Son. So we belong to the priestly family, and God has brought us near. Fellowship with Him must then mean separation from all that is contrary to His mind and will. Linked with God on the one side, we cannot on the other link Him with what would dishonour Him. So our associations are of the most vital importance to our highest interests here.
- Brought near. Grace links the people to God first. Only then does He speak about food, because nearness to Him rules out what cannot be joined to Him.
- Taken in. Eating stands for communion: you make your own what you take in. So God directs the choice instead of leaving it to personal whim.
- Marked. Two signs together made a creature clean: chewing the cud and a divided hoof. They picture meditation and walk, joined perfectly in Jesus.
- Clean, not healthy. The law never argues from health. Its question is clean or unclean, and the food pictures the character it forms.
- Released. God laid these limits on Israel alone under law, never on the nations. Since the cross the barrier is gone, and everything God created is good when received with thanksgiving.
Whatever hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts -- that shall ye eat.
God's first food rule for Israel names two tests an animal had to pass together: how it walks, and how it digests. It reads like a diet law, but commentators find in it a picture of the believer's inner life and outward walk.
Both features had to appear in the same animal. An Israelite did not need to know why; we are free to ask.
About beasts, two things were needed to make them clean: they should chew the cud and divide the hoof. "Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat." Either mark on its own was not enough to make an animal ceremonially clean. The two should go together. These two marks were quite enough to guide an Israelite about whether an animal was clean or unclean. He did not have to ask why the marks were given, or what they meant. Yet the Christian may look into the spiritual truth wrapped up in these ceremonial rules.
The first mark is about what an animal does after it swallows. Cattle at pasture show what that means for someone reading the Bible.
I fear that many who read the Bible do not digest the word. The two things are very different. One may read chapter after chapter, book after book, and not digest so much as a single line. We may read the Bible as part of a dull, useless routine. But if we lack the power to chew it over again — the digestive organs — we gain no profit at all. This deserves a close look. The cattle grazing on the grass can teach us a healthy lesson. They first gather up the fresh pasture with care, and then lie down quietly to chew the cud.
Another writer explains what the animal's body actually does.
We are told that animals which chew the cud have two stomachs. When the animal eats, the food goes into the first stomach. After a time it comes back up into its mouth by some process, and gets a second, careful chewing. Then it goes down into the second stomach, and the animal takes it in fully. Chewing the cud stands for full assimilation.
The second mark is one you can see: the walk. One writer draws the lesson from what a split hoof lets an animal do on bad ground.
Among the animals there were two marks that would make one suitable for eating: (1) if it has a divided hoof, and (2) if it chewed the cud (v. 3). The divided hoof enables the animal to walk through miry land without being bogged down in it. So our fellowship is not to be with people whose walk is tangled up in the affairs of this life. It is to be with those who depend on divine grace to carry them through the world. The number 2 (the divided hoof) speaks of dependence, not the self-sufficiency that number 1 might suggest.
Separate the two marks and each one collapses. The warning cuts both ways.
A man may claim to love and feed on the Word of God — to study and think it over — as the pasture of his soul. But if his footprints along the path of life are not what the Word needs, he is not clean. On the other hand, a man may appear to walk with blameless correctness. But if his walk does not come out of the hidden life, it is worse than worthless. The divine principle must be there inside him, feeding on and digesting the rich pasture of God's Word. Without it, the mark of his footstep counts for nothing. The value of each depends on its inseparable connection with the other.
So why did God draw this line at all? One writer finds the reason in Israel's relationship with God, not in their health.
It was not the point to give information about what was wholesome or unwholesome; a moral end is everywhere uppermost. Jehovah would have Israel trust Him and His choice for them as a special and consecrated people. No doubt He chose what was good — in fact, the best. His restrictions came from the discerning insight of the One who made each creature. He had called out His people to live under His righteous government, and He looked on to a heavenly family who would gather His mind by the Spirit, since it lay hidden under these outward shadows.
So where do the two marks meet in perfect form?
In general, clean beasts were those that both chewed the cud and divided the hoof. Whatever really feeds us must combine both: what stirs the inner life, and what shapes the outward walk. Christ alone shows this in perfection, and it is as we feed on Him that these marks are reproduced in us.
- Not a diet rule — The point was never which meats are healthy; God wanted Israel to trust His choice for them as His own people.
- Inward first — Chewing the cud pictures taking the Word in fully. Digest it; do not just read it.
- Outward next — The divided hoof pictures the walk. It carries a believer through muddy ground without getting stuck.
- Never split — Feeding on the Word without a matching walk leaves a man unclean. A right walk with no inner life behind it is worse than worthless.
- Found in Christ — The two combine perfectly in Him alone, and are reproduced in us as we feed on Him.
Only these shall ye not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those with cloven hoofs the camel, for it cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs -- it shall be unclean unto you;
Leviticus 11 is where God teaches His people to tell clean from unclean, and He starts with their food. Verse 4 gives the first exception — the camel keeps one of the two required marks, and one is not enough.
A clean land animal had to carry two signs, and writers here read them as the inner and the outer side of one life.
Chewing the cud pictures the natural process of "inwardly digesting" what one eats. The divided hoof shows the character of one's outward walk. There is, as we know, a close connection between the two in the Christian life. Think of the person who feeds on the green pastures of the Word of God and digests what he takes in. He combines calm meditation with prayerful study. Without doubt he will show the outward walk that praises God, who has given us His word to form our habits and govern our ways.
Half the evidence was not enough for Israel, and the reason given is fellowship.
Now that the priests were consecrated, the details follow. Israel must have no fellowship where the outward walk was not firm and joined to the inward work of full digestion. Among the land animals God marks two requirements here. The hoofs must not be partly cloven, but split right open. The animal must chew, or bring up, the cud. One alone is not enough. Both must exist together to meet His mind for His people. So the cases are explained from animals they knew well.
The camel has the right inward mark and the wrong footprint. Commentators read it in two ways. One sees religion on display while the feet tell another story:
Verses 4 to 8 insist that both of these things must be present or the animal was unclean. The camel chewed the cud but did not divide the hoof. So there are those who make a show of honouring God while their walk is fouled in the mire of the world. Many false religions are the same in essence, and the believer is to have no part with such things.
Another sees in the camel a real believer, weighed down:
Look at the exceptions: of the truly ruminating animals only one — the camel. He is no racer, and he travels with a burden. He was made for the desert, not for the pasture-lands. He is clumsy, bad-tempered, unlike the rest of his class. May he not remind us of the many Christians who seem to be always learning the things of God, yet still go through the world weighed down, as if the desert were all they had? The camel-Christian may indeed be a real one, as his representative is a ruminant, and yet what a poor bungled copy he seems! The cares of this world weigh him down. He is earthly-heavenly: according to the Word of God, "unclean."
One visible mark could fool an observer, so the law forced a second look at how the creature moved.
Remember: chewing the cud must never be separated from the divided hoof. Suppose someone knew the priest's guide book only in part. He might see an animal chewing the cud and quickly call it clean. This would have been a serious error. A closer look at God's own directory would show him at once what to do. He must mark the animal's walk. He must note the print left by each movement. He must look for the result of the divided hoof.
There is a reason God starts with the dinner table.
Eating here as elsewhere is a picture of communion. One takes as one's own what is received in this way. But sin has entered, with all the disorders that follow. So God gives His people His gracious and wise direction. He does not leave them to themselves and the changing whims of independent judgment. As a general principle the difference between clean and unclean was known in early days. God directed Noah to take clean animals into the ark by sevens, but only two of those that were not clean.
One Man held both marks together perfectly. Every counterfeit pulls them apart.
The "divided hoof" clearly suggests walk, and "chewing the cud" meditation on the word of God. Both marks were set out perfectly in Jesus the Son of God. His fellowship with God was never interrupted for a moment, until He was made sin and a sacrifice for us on the cross. We know that He did not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. His delight was in the law of the LORD, and on His law He meditated day and night.
In both examples the counterfeit does one thing: it separates what God has joined together — receiving His word, and walking like Christ.
- Two marks. Chewing the cud pictures taking God's Word in. The divided hoof pictures the walk that comes out.
- Joined. One mark alone never made an animal clean. Every counterfeit splits what God joined.
- Camel. It had the inward sign and the wrong footprint. Commentators see in it both a show of honouring God with a worldly walk, and a real believer weighed down by the world.
- Look twice. Anyone could see the cud at a glance. The walk showed only in the print left by every step.
- Table. Eating pictures communion, so God directs what His people take in. Both marks met perfectly in Christ.
and the rock-badger, for it cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs -- it shall be unclean unto you;
The rock badger passes half the test: it chews the cud, but its hoof is not split. On that one count God calls it unclean to Israel. Why does God have His people check the mouth and the feet? And why is one mark alone never enough?
Older translations call it the coney, which suggests a rabbit. The Hebrew word points to another animal.
The rabbit, which is only another name for coney, is not known in Palestine. The Hebrew word shaphan is thought to mean the Syrian hyrax. It is about the size of a rabbit, but it does not chew the cud. When at rest it keeps rubbing its teeth together, so it looks like it is chewing. It makes a wholesome meal, so the Jewish ritual law had to name it.
The chapter names two marks of a clean animal. Commentators read them as a picture of two sides of life with God.
Chewing the cud pictures the inward digesting of what one eats. The divided hoof shows the character of one's outward walk. There is, as we know, a close connection between the two in the Christian life. Someone who feeds on the green pastures of the Word of God digests what he takes in. He is able to combine calm meditation with prayerful study. Without doubt he will show the outward walk that praises God. God has kindly given us His word to form our habits and govern our ways.
Verse 5 exists because a quick glance would have got the answer wrong.
But remember: never separate the chewing of the cud from the divided hoof. Suppose a man knew the priest's guide book only in part and was untrained in God's rules for worship. If he saw an animal chewing the cud, he might quickly call it clean. This would have been a serious error. A closer look at God's directory would show him at once what else to do. He must mark the animal's walk. He must note the impression made by each movement. He must look for the result of the divided hoof.
The hyrax does not chew the cud at all. Commentators take this not as an error in the text but as part of the lesson.
Many have wondered that the hare and the coney — the hyrax — should be counted among the animals that chew the cud. But it has been well argued that these are practical directions for simple people, not studies in natural history. To ordinary people the hare and the coney look as if they chew the cud, though they only grind their teeth. They claim to chew the cud without the reality. God takes them here as He takes men according to what they claim: but that cannot make them clean.
The same half-mark appears in people, and the case is painful.
What does the animal that chewed the cud, but did not divide the hoof, stand for? There are people who are true Christians. They have taken in the word of God and made it their own, at least far enough to receive Christ as their Saviour. Yet they are so worldly that it is hard to tell whether they belong to the Lord.
The same pairing of inward life and outward walk appears later in Scripture.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ set people free from the law of sin and death. For those it set free, a walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh is essential. The Spirit of God dwells in the Christian, and this is a great and sure truth. It is also the very ground on which he is to glorify God in his body. Scripture urges us to cleanse ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
The food restrictions belonged to a particular people at a particular time.
God made no such distinctions in Noah's day — see Genesis 9:2-3. This fact, we believe, lies behind Paul's words, "nothing is unclean in itself" (Romans 14:14). In Noah's day all men were in view. In Moses' day only Israel was in question. These special laws were meant to impress Israel with the holiness of God. They were also meant to keep Israel distinct and separate from the nations.
- Named. The coney of older translations is the Syrian hyrax. It grinds its teeth, so it only looks like it is chewing.
- Marked. Chewing the cud pictures taking the Word in. The split hoof pictures the walk that Word produces.
- Halved. The rock badger has the look of the first mark and none of the second. God takes the claim at face value and still calls it unclean.
- Applied. A believer can take in Scripture and still walk so much like the world that no one can tell whose he is.
- Fulfilled. The diet rule was for Israel and has passed. The lesson it carried has not: inward feeding matched by outward holiness.
and the hare, for it cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs -- it shall be unclean unto you;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and the swine, for it hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, but it cheweth not the cud -- it shall be unclean unto you.
Leviticus 11 sorts the land animals by two visible tests: a split hoof and the chewing of the cud. The pig passes the first test and fails the second, which raises the question the whole chapter is driving at — what does God count as clean?
An animal needed both marks. Each mark stands for something in a person's life.
The inward life and the outward walk must go together. A man may claim to love the Word of God and feed on it — to study it and think it over, the pasture of the soul. But if his footprints along the path of life are not what the Word calls for, he is not clean. On the other hand, a man may seem to walk with the blamelessness of a Pharisee. But if his walk does not come out of the hidden life, it is worse than worthless.
The verse marks the pig by what it does not do. So what happens when an animal chews the cud?
We have been told that animals that chew the cud have two stomachs. When they eat, the food goes into the first stomach. After a time, by some process, it comes back up to the animal's mouth, and the animal chews it a second time with care. Then it goes down into the second stomach, and the animal absorbs it. Chewing the cud stands for full assimilation... if we are to please the Lord we must not only read the Word of God. We must meditate on it, make it our own, absorb it, take it into our spiritual beings.
The pig eats. It never comes back to what it swallowed.
The swine did not chew the cud. It gulped its food down, though it had cloven hoofs and feet quite split open. It was to be unclean to them. They must neither eat the flesh nor touch the carcass.
The pig is the one animal here you would misjudge by the footprint alone.
The last animal here is very different from the rest, and the very type of uncleanness. The swine made no pretence of chewing the cud, but it had the cloven foot. If you looked only at that, the swine would seem clean. It pictures people who openly slight faith and the Word of God and plead their good conduct instead: "He can't be wrong whose life is in the right." In fact the life is not right. The swine loves the mud and roots up the ground; it is a destroyer by nature. God does not judge as man judges, but His judgment alone is true.
There is a religion that measures itself by conduct alone.
There are some who make a loud case for works. They argue for an upright, conscientious walk. Their constant cry is, "Give and do."... They are something like the clean animal in one point: they have a divided hoof and leave a certain track in the walk. Yet they are as unclean as the swine, because they do not chew the cud. They ignore the testimony of God about man's utter ruin as a sinner, and about eternal redemption accomplished by Christ Jesus for all who believe in His name — the foundation of all true Christianity.
The same failure has an end point: the washed animal goes back to the mud.
Some people seem able to walk in the right way. They concentrate on moral uprightness, yet have no heart for learning the Word of God, and so never meditate on the person of Christ who sits at the right hand of God. They may have feet that could carry them through the mud of the world. But instead, though they may even be washed (not saved, but cleaned up on the outside), they prefer to return to wallowing in the mud (2 Peter 2:22). The believer is warned not to have any fellowship with such people.
So the answer does not lie in trying harder at either mark.
So it is as pointless to rest on inward meditation alone as on outward self-denial alone. By itself either one is only self, an empty boast in the flesh, in total ignorance of both God and man. But His grace meets man — unclean, wilful and proud — in and by His own Son. That Man without sin came to die for him and to suffer for his sins. In resurrection a new condition begins. There He gives those who believe to live by His life and to receive the Spirit of God, so that we may walk accordingly.
- Two tests. A clean animal had to chew the cud and split the hoof. The pig fails the first test. One mark alone never made anything clean.
- Inside first. Chewing the cud pictures taking the Word in and going over it again until it becomes part of you — not just reading it.
- Outside follows. The split hoof is the track left behind, the walk; it counts only when it comes out of the hidden life.
- The pig's warning. Look only at the footprint and you would pass the pig as clean. That is good conduct offered in place of faith in God's Word.
- The way out. Neither inward meditation nor outward self-denial makes anyone clean. Grace meets unclean man in God's own Son, and in resurrection He gives believers His own life.
Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch they shall be unclean unto you.
Leviticus 11 gives Israel a food list, and verse 8 is the verdict on four animals that just failed the test: the camel, the rock badger, the hare and the pig. Their meat and even their dead bodies are off limits, and the reason is not health or taste but God's own word — "they are unclean to you."
Verse 8 falls on animals that were half right. The two marks stand or fall together.
The divided hoof was not enough on its own, without the chewing of the cud. The pig parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, so it is unclean to you (v. 7). In a word, the two things were inseparable in every clean animal. The spiritual application matters enormously in practice. The inward life and the outward walk must go together. A man may claim to love and feed on the Word of God — to study it and turn it over, the pasture of the soul. But if his footprints along the path of life are not what the Word calls for, he is not clean. On the other hand, a man may seem to walk with a Pharisee's blamelessness. But if his walk does not come from the hidden life, it is worse than worthless.
The vocabulary itself carries the lesson: an animal that chews the cud is a ruminant.
Among animals only those were clean that had the two marks: chewing the cud and the cloven hoof. Animals that chew the cud are classed as "ruminants," and to "ruminate" has picked up "meditate" as a second meaning. The animals with a cloven hoof are sure-footed and often light-footed too. If the word of God is hidden in our hearts by meditation, and if it shapes our outward walk in this way, our path will be clean in God's sight.
Chewing the cud goes over food already swallowed — a second pass, not a first reading.
There is reason to fear that many who read the Bible do not digest the word. The two things are widely different. One may read chapter after chapter, book after book, and not digest so much as a single line... The cattle grazing on the grass can teach us a healthy lesson. First they gather up the refreshing pasture, then they calmly lie down to chew the cud.
The two marks describe someone before they describe us.
The clean, as we have seen, foreshadow Christ. They were marked by two distinguishing features — parting the hoof and chewing the cud... The "divided hoof" clearly points to walk, and "chewing the cud" points to meditation on the word of God. Jesus the Son of God displayed both marks in a striking and perfect way. His fellowship with God went on without a moment's interruption, until He was made sin and a sacrifice for us on the cross.
Israel did not draw up this list, and personal taste had no say in it.
They were not their own, and so they were not to do as they pleased. They belonged to Jehovah; His name was called on them; they were identified with Him. His word was to be their great regulating standard in every case... God's Word was to be their only guide. Other nations might eat what they pleased; but Israel had the high privilege of eating only what pleased Jehovah.
Verse 8 bans the carcass as well as the meat.
The care God took over His people went further than eating what was unclean. Bare contact was forbidden too. (See v. 8, 24, 26-28, 31-41.) It was impossible for a member of the Israel of God to touch what was unclean without picking up defilement... Jehovah would have His people holy in all things. They were neither to eat nor touch anything unclean.
God gave these rules to one nation for a season, and the New Testament says so.
One other thing we may note about this chapter: these distinctions were not made in Noah's day — see Genesis 9:2-3. This fact, we believe, lies behind Paul's statement, "nothing is unclean in itself" (Rom. 14:14); and again, "All things are lawful" (1 Cor. 10:23). In Noah's day all men were in view. In Moses' day only Israel was in question. These special laws had two aims: to impress them with the holiness of God, and to help keep them distinct and separate from the nations.
Peter learned what the unclean animals really stood for.
In a vision the Lord told Peter to eat all kinds of animals. Peter objected, but the Lord insisted. Then he realised that the unclean animals stood for people — that is, Gentiles. In Acts 10:28 Peter says that God had shown him he should not call any man unclean... God has removed the barrier between clean and unclean animals. So "everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving" (1 Tim. 4:4).
- Two marks. Cloven hoof and chewed cud had to appear together; verse 8 is the sentence on every animal that had only one.
- Two lessons. The split hoof pictures the walk; chewing the cud pictures meditation. Take the Word in, then go over it until you digest it.
- One Person. Both marks were perfect in Christ; His walk and His meditation on God's word never came apart.
- One authority. "Unclean to you" came from God, not from Israel's taste. His word, not their reasoning, set the standard.
- One lasting test. The list bound Israel only, and Peter's vision closed the food question. A life fed on Scripture and matched by a clean walk is still what God is after.