Leviticus 11:31 (KJV)

Passage

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

Nearby Context

Leviticus 11:29 These 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,

Leviticus 11:30 And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.

Leviticus 11:31 These are unclean to you among all that creep: whosoever doth touch them, when they be 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, wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even; so it shall be cleansed.

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

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 ferret and the chameleon 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.