Leviticus 11:26

Summary

Leviticus 11:26 defines an animal as unclean if it lacks either of two specific traits: a fully split hoof or the practice of chewing the cud. The verse closes with a rule that touching such an animal transmits uncleanness to the person who touches it.

Key words

• maf'reset ("dividing", H6536) — hiphil participle, feminine singular, describing the ongoing action of the hoof being split; paired with parsah ("hoof", H6541) to name the physical trait being evaluated.
• einenah ("it is not", H0369 + suffix H9044) — a construct noun bearing a pronominal suffix, functioning idiomatically as a negator before a participle; this pattern ("there-is-not-her [doing X]") is how Biblical Hebrew negates ongoing states rather than using a simple negative particle with a finite verb.
• sho'a'at ("cleaving", H8156) — qal participle, feminine singular, parallel in form to maf'reset but from a different verbal stem (qal vs. hiphil), describing the actual splitting of the cleft rather than the causative act of dividing.
• ma'alah ("bringing up", H5927M) — hiphil participle, feminine singular, describing the causative action of bringing up the cud; structurally mirrors maf'reset, showing the verse's parallel construction for both disqualifying conditions.
• yitma ("he will be unclean", H2930A) — qal imperfect, expressing a future or ongoing consequence: contact with the disqualified animals results in this state for the toucher.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around two parallel negated participial clauses, each following the pattern noun + einenah + participle: "shesa einenah sho'a'at" ("a cleft, it is not cleaving [it]") and "gerah einenah ma'alah" ("cud, it is not bringing up [it]"). This structure places the noun (the trait: cleft, cud) before the negated verb, giving each clause a topic-comment shape rather than a simple subject-verb-negation order. The animal being discussed is introduced at the start via lekhol habbehemah ("to every animal"), with the relative clause asher hi ("which it") extending into these two negated descriptions.

The verse concludes with two independent clauses: tme'im hem lakhem ("unclean they [are] to you") states the classification, while kol hannoge'a bahem yitma ("all the one touching in them, he will be unclean") states the consequence of contact, using a qal active participle (noge'a) for the toucher and a qal imperfect (yitma) for the resulting state.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the touch clause as ἁπτόμενος τῶν θνησιμαίων αὐτῶν ("touching their carcasses"), introducing the notion of carcasses (θνησιμαίων) not present in the Hebrew, which simply reads noge'a bahem ("touching them," referring to the animals). The LXX also adds ἕως ἑσπέρας ("until evening") at the end, a time limit absent from the Hebrew yitma ("he will be unclean"), which contains no temporal marker. The Vulgate's qui tetigerit illud ("whoever touches it") uses a singular pronoun, while the Hebrew bahem ("in them") is plural.