Leviticus 11:36

Summary

The verse establishes an exception regarding water sources: a spring or cistern that collects water remains ritually pure even if a carcass falls into it, but a person who touches the carcass itself becomes unclean.

Key words

• 'akh ("nevertheless", H0389) — restrictive adverb marking a contrast with the preceding rules about contamination by carcasses; it signals an exception clause.
• ma'yan ("a spring", H4599) — masculine singular noun, the first of two water sources named as exempt from the general contamination rule.
• mikveh-mayim ("a reservoir of water", H4723C + H4325G) — construct chain, literally "a gathering-place of water," describing the nature of the cistern as a collection point rather than flowing water.
• tahor ("pure", H2889) — masculine singular adjective, predicate describing the state of the water source itself.
• noge'a ("[one who] touches", H5060) — qal participle, masculine singular, denoting an ongoing or generic actor ("the one touching"), contrasted with the water's own status.
• yitma' ("he will be unclean", H2930A) — qal imperfect, describing the resulting state of the person who touches the carcass, not of the water.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two independent clauses joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002). The first clause states that ma'yan ("a spring", H4599) and bor miqveh-mayim ("a cistern, a reservoir of water", H0953A + H4723C + H4325G) yihyeh ("it will be", H1961) tahor ("pure", H2889) — the verb yihyeh is singular even though two nouns (spring, cistern) are named, suggesting the predicate applies distributively to each water source rather than treating them as a single compound subject.

The second clause shifts subject: noge'a ("[one who] touches", H5060) is a participle functioning as a substantive, "the one who touches," followed by be-nivlatam ("in their carcass", H5038 + H9028), a construct with a third-person plural suffix referring back to the animals discussed earlier in the chapter. The final verb yitma' ("he will be unclean", H2930A) applies to this toucher, not to the water. The grammar thus separates the status of the water source (which remains tahor) from the status of the person who has direct contact with the carcass (who becomes tamé).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mikveh-mayim ("reservoir of water") as synagōgēs hydatos ("gathering of water"), treating it as a third distinct item alongside "spring" (pēgōn) and "cistern" (lakkou), producing a list of three rather than the Hebrew's two-item construct phrase. The Vulgate's omnis aquarum congregatio ("every gathering of waters") similarly expands the construct into a general category, differing from the Hebrew's more specific "cistern that is a reservoir of water."