Leviticus 11:31 (ASV)

Passage

These are they which are unclean to you among all that creep: whosoever doth touch them, when they are dead, shall be unclean until the even.

Nearby Context

Leviticus 11:29 And these are they which are unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the great lizard after its kind,

Leviticus 11:30 and the gecko, and the land-crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand-lizard, and the chameleon.

Leviticus 11:31 These are they which are unclean to you among all that creep: whosoever doth touch them, when they are dead, shall be unclean until the even.

Leviticus 11:32 And 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, wherewith any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even; then shall it be clean.

Leviticus 11:33 And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean, and it ye shall break.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "unclean", "creep", "whosoever", "doth", "touch", "dead", and "shall". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "unclean" and "creep", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 30's "and the gecko and the land-crocodile and..." into verse 32's "And upon whatsoever any of them when...", so "unclean" and "creep" belong inside that flow. In Leviticus context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "unclean" and "creep" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.