Clean & unclean — the rules of Leviticus 11
Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 sort creatures by simple physical tests. Learn the six rules and you can judge any food yourself.
Land animals
Parts the hoof AND chews the cud
Both tests must pass. The camel chews the cud but has no split hoof; the pig has the hoof but chews no cud — both fail.
Leviticus 11:2-8 · Deuteronomy 14:4-8
Water creatures
Has fins AND scales
Anything in seas or rivers without both fins and scales is out — that removes all shellfish, crustaceans, and smooth-skinned fish like catfish and eel.
Clean
Unclean
Leviticus 11:9-12 · Deuteronomy 14:9-10
Birds
Not on the forbidden list
Scripture lists the forbidden birds by name — overwhelmingly birds of prey and scavengers. Birds outside the list — dove, pigeon, and quail among them — appear as food without comment; others, such as sparrow and hen, are clean by absence from the list rather than by any example of their being eaten.
Leviticus 11:13-19 · Deuteronomy 14:11-18
Flying insects
Walks on all fours BUT has jointed legs to leap with
Winged crawling insects are out — except the leaping kind. The locust family is explicitly permitted, a permission John the Baptist’s wilderness diet of locusts and wild honey fell within. Deuteronomy 14:19 restates the ban on winged creeping things without repeating the leaping exception; most readers take it as abbreviating Leviticus rather than overruling it.
Clean
Unclean
Leviticus 11:20-23 · Deuteronomy 14:19-20
Creeping things
Everything that creeps on the earth is forbidden
Rodents, reptiles, and everything that goes on its belly or on many feet — no exceptions.
Clean
Unclean
Leviticus 11:29-31 · Leviticus 11:41-43
Carrion & carcasses
Even a clean animal found dead is unclean
The manner of death matters: an animal that dies of itself may not be eaten by Israel, clean species or not (Leviticus 11:39-40). Deuteronomy 14:21 adds a qualifier worth noticing — the carcass could be given to a resident foreigner or sold to an alien, framing the rule as part of Israel’s distinct holiness (‘for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God’) rather than a claim that the meat is inedible in itself.
Clean
Unclean
Leviticus 11:39-40 · Exodus 22:31 · Deuteronomy 14:21
What about the New Testament?
Fulfilled reading
“Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?”
Readers in this tradition take the closing clause as declaring all foods cleansed.
“What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”
Peter's vision is read as removing the food distinction along with the barrier between Jew and Gentile.
Observant reading
Many believers keep the laws as they were given, holding that the commands were never repealed and that Mark 7 addresses hand-washing traditions while Acts 10 concerns people rather than menus. The call in Leviticus 11:44-45 — “be ye holy, for I am holy” — is read as standing instruction, not a temporary code.
Leviticus 11:44-45
ScriptureFoods documents what Scripture says — how you eat is between you and God.
Where readers land
Follow the food laws
Don't
Just exploring
Too early to say — the count is just getting started.
Fifteen questions
The Leviticus 11 Kitchen Test
Answer yes or no on fifteen everyday foods and see how your own shelves read against the chapter — with the verse behind each answer.
Leviticus 11 — the full chapter (KJV)
1And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them,
2Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.
3Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.
4Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
5And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
6And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
7And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.
8Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.
9These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.
10And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
11They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.
12Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.
13And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
14And the vulture, and the kite after his kind;
15Every raven after his kind;
16And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,
17And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,
18And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle,
19And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
20All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you.
21Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth;
22Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.
23But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you.
24And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even.
25And whosoever beareth ought of the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.
26The carcases of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean.
27And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you: whoso toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the even.
28And he that beareth the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: they are unclean unto you.
29These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,
30And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.
31These are unclean to you among all that creep: whosoever doth touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean until the even.
32And upon whatsoever any of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel it be, wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even; so it shall be cleansed.
33And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean; and ye shall break it.
34Of all meat which may be eaten, that on which such water cometh shall be unclean: and all drink that may be drunk in every such vessel shall be unclean.
35And every thing whereupon any part of their carcase falleth shall be unclean; whether it be oven, or ranges for pots, they shall be broken down: for they are unclean, and shall be unclean unto you.
36Nevertheless a fountain or pit, wherein there is plenty of water, shall be clean: but that which toucheth their carcase shall be unclean.
37And if any part of their carcase fall upon any sowing seed which is to be sown, it shall be clean.
38But if any water be put upon the seed, and any part of their carcase fall thereon, it shall be unclean unto you.
39And if any beast, of which ye may eat, die; he that toucheth the carcase thereof shall be unclean until the even.
40And he that eateth of the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: he also that beareth the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.
41And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten.
42Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination.
43Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
44For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
45For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
46This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth:
47To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.