Leviticus 11-13

Easy-to-Read Version

Rules About Eating Meat

11 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² “Tell the Israelites: These are the animals you can eat: ³ If an animal has hooves that are split into two parts, and if that animal also chews the cud, then you may eat the meat from that animal.

^4-6 “Some animals chew the cud, but they don’t have split hooves. Don’t eat these animals. Camels, rock badgers, and rabbits are like that, so they are unclean for you. ⁷ Other animals have hooves that are split into two parts, but they don’t chew the cud. Don’t eat these animals. Pigs are like that, so they are unclean for you. ⁸ Don’t eat the meat from these animals. Don’t even touch their dead bodies! They are unclean for you.

Rules About Sea Food

⁹ “You may eat everything that lives in the sea or in a river that has fins and scales. ^10-11 But you must not eat anything that lives in the sea or in a river and does not have fins and scales. Just the thought of eating such a creature should make you sick. This will never change. So don’t ever eat meat from anything like that. Don’t even touch its dead body! ¹² It is a sickening thought for you to touch anything that lives in the water and does not have fins and scales.

Birds That Must Not Be Eaten

¹³ “You must also treat some birds as things that are wrong to eat. Stay away from them. It is a sickening thought for you to eat any of these birds: eagles, vultures, buzzards, ¹⁴ kites, all kinds of falcons, ¹⁵ all kinds of black birds, ¹⁶ ostriches, nighthawks, sea gulls, all kinds of hawks, ¹⁷ owls, cormorants, great owls, ¹⁸ water hens, pelicans, carrion vultures, ¹⁹ storks, all kinds of herons, hoopoes, and bats.

Rules About Eating Insects

²⁰ “Don’t eat insects that have wings and crawl.^[a] Even the thought of eating them should make you sick! ²¹ But you may eat insects if they have legs with joints above their feet so that they can jump. ²² You may also eat all kinds of locusts, all kinds of winged locusts, all kinds of crickets, and all kinds of grasshoppers.

²³ “But stay away from all the other insects that have wings and crawl. ²⁴ They will make you unclean. If you touch the dead bodies of these insects, you will become unclean until evening. ²⁵ If you pick up one of these dead insects, you must wash your clothes. You will be unclean until evening.

More Rules About Animals

^26-27 “Some animals have split hooves, but the hooves don’t make exactly two parts. Some animals don’t chew the cud. Some animals don’t have hooves—they walk on their paws.^[b] All these animals are unclean for you. If you touch them, you will become unclean until evening. ²⁸ If you pick up the dead bodies of these unclean animals, you must wash your clothes. You will be unclean until evening. These animals are unclean for you.

Rules About Crawling Animals

²⁹ “These small animals are unclean for you: moles, mice, all kinds of great lizards, ³⁰ geckos, crocodiles, lizards, sand reptiles, and chameleons. ³¹ Whoever touches their dead bodies will be unclean until evening.

Rules About Unclean Animals

³² “If any of these unclean animals dies and falls on something, that thing will become unclean. It might be something made from wood, cloth, leather, or sackcloth. Whatever it is or is used for, it must be washed with water. It will be unclean until evening. Then it will become clean again. ³³ If any of these unclean animals dies and falls into a clay dish, anything in the dish will become unclean. And you must break the dish. ³⁴ If water from the unclean clay dish touches any food, that food will become unclean. Any drink in the unclean dish will become unclean. ³⁵ If any part of a dead, unclean animal falls on something, that thing is unclean. It may be a clay oven or a clay baking pan. It must be broken into pieces. These things will remain unclean. They will always be unclean for you.

³⁶ “A spring or a well that collects water will remain clean, but anyone who touches the dead bodies of any unclean animal in that water will become unclean. ³⁷ If any part of a dead, unclean animal falls on seed that is to be planted, that seed is still clean. ³⁸ But if you put water on some seed and if any part of a dead, unclean animal falls on those seeds, they are unclean for you.

³⁹ “Also, if an animal which you use for food dies, whoever touches its dead body will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁰ If you eat meat from this animal’s body, you must wash your clothes. You will be unclean until evening. If you pick up the dead body of the animal, you must wash your clothes. You will be unclean until evening.

⁴¹ “You must treat all the crawling animals that live on the dirt as disgusting things that you must not eat. ⁴² You must not eat any of the reptiles that crawl on their bellies or that walk on all four feet or that have many feet. Don’t eat these animals! ⁴³ Don’t let them make you filthy.^[c] You must not become unclean, ⁴⁴ because I am the Lord your God. I am holy, so you should keep yourselves holy. Don’t make yourselves unclean with these crawling things. ⁴⁵ I, the Lord, brought you out of Egypt so that you could be my special people and I could be your God. I am holy, so you must be holy too.”

⁴⁶ These are the rules about all the tame animals, birds, all the animals in the sea, and all the animals that crawl on the ground. ⁴⁷ These rules will help the people know which animals are unclean and which animals they are allowed to eat and which ones they cannot eat.

Rules for New Mothers

12 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites:

“When a woman gives birth, she will be unclean, just as she is during her monthly time of bleeding. If the baby is a boy, the mother will be unclean for seven days. ³ The baby boy must be circumcised on the eighth day. ⁴ Because of the blood from childbirth, another 33 days must pass before she can touch anything that is holy. She must not enter the Holy Place until the time of her purification^[d] is finished. ⁵ But if she gives birth to a girl, the mother will be unclean for 14 days, just as she is during her monthly time of bleeding. Because of the blood from childbirth, another 66 days must pass before she becomes clean.

⁶ “After the time of her purification is finished, the new mother of a baby girl or boy must bring special sacrifices to the Meeting Tent. She must give her sacrifices to the priest at the entrance of the Meeting Tent. She must bring a one-year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a dove or young pigeon for a sin offering. ^7-8 If the woman cannot afford a lamb, she may bring two doves or two young pigeons. One bird will be for a burnt offering and one for a sin offering. The priest will offer them before the Lord. In this way the priest will make her pure, and she will be clean from the blood of childbirth. These are the rules for a woman who gives birth to a baby boy or a baby girl.”

Rules About Skin Diseases

13 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² “Someone might have a swelling on their skin, or it may be a rash or a bright spot. If the sore looks like the disease of leprosy, the person must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests. ³ The priest must look at the sore on the person’s skin. If the hair in the sore has become white, and if the sore seems deeper than the person’s skin, it is leprosy. When the priest has finished looking at the person, he must announce that the person is unclean.

⁴ “Sometimes there is a white spot on a person’s skin that does not seem deeper than the skin. If that is true, the priest must separate that person from other people for seven days. ⁵ On the seventh day the priest must look at the person again. If the priest sees that the sore has not changed and has not spread on the skin, he must separate the person for seven more days. ⁶ Seven days later the priest must look at the person again. If the sore has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest must announce that the person is clean. The sore is only a rash. After washing the clothes, that person will be clean again.

⁷ “But if the rash spreads over the skin after the person has shown himself to the priest to be made clean again, that person must come again to the priest. ⁸ The priest must look, and if the rash has spread, he must announce that the person is unclean. The disease is leprosy.

⁹ “Whoever has leprosy must be brought to the priest. ¹⁰ He must look at that person. If there is a white swelling on the skin, if the hair has become white, and if the skin looks raw in the swelling, ¹¹ it is leprosy that has been there for a long time. The priest must announce that the person is unclean. He does not have to wait until after a period of separation, because he already knows that the person is unclean.

¹² “Sometimes a skin disease will spread all over a person’s body, covering the skin from head to foot. The priest must look at that person’s whole body. ¹³ If the priest sees that the skin disease covers the whole body and that it has turned all the skin white, the priest must announce that the person is clean. ¹⁴ But if the skin is raw, that person is not clean. ¹⁵ When the priest sees the raw skin, he must announce that the person is unclean. The raw skin is not clean. It is leprosy.

¹⁶ “If the raw skin changes and becomes white, the person must come to the priest. ¹⁷ The priest must look at the person. If the skin has become white, the person who had the infection is clean, and the priest must announce this.

¹⁸ “Someone might get a boil on their skin that heals over. ¹⁹ Then that boil might become a white swelling or a bright, white spot with red streaks in it. If this happens, the person must show that spot to the priest. ²⁰ The priest must look at it. If the swelling is deeper than the skin, and the hair on it has become white, the priest must announce that the person is unclean. The spot is leprosy that has broken out from inside the boil. ²¹ But if the priest looks at the spot, and there are no white hairs in it, and the spot is not deeper than the skin but is faded, the priest must separate the person for seven days. ²² If the spot spreads on the skin, the priest must announce that the person is unclean; it is an infection. ²³ But if the bright spot stays in its place and does not spread, it is only the scar from the old boil. The priest must announce that the person is clean.

^24-25 “Someone might get a burn on the skin. If the raw skin becomes a white spot or a white spot with red streaks in it, the priest must look at it. If that white spot seems to be deeper than the skin, and the hair at that spot has become white, it is leprosy that has broken out in the burn. The priest must announce that the person is unclean. ²⁶ But if the priest looks at the spot, and there is no white hair in the bright spot, and the spot is not deeper than the skin but is faded, the priest must separate the person for seven days. ²⁷ On the seventh day, the priest must look at the person again. If the spot has spread on the skin, the priest must announce that the person is unclean. It is leprosy. ²⁸ But if the bright spot has not spread on the skin but has faded, it is only a scar from the burn. The priest must announce that the person is clean.

²⁹ “Someone might get an infection on the scalp^[e] or beard. ³⁰ A priest must look at the infection. If the infection seems to be deeper than the skin, and if the hair around it is thin and yellow, the priest must announce that the person is unclean. It is a serious skin disease.^{[f] 31} If the disease does not seem deeper than the skin, but there is no dark hair in it, the priest must separate that person for seven days. ³² On the seventh day, the priest must look at it again. If the disease has not spread, and there are no yellow hairs growing in it, and the disease does not seem deeper than the skin, ³³ the person must shave. But the diseased area should not be shaved. The priest must separate that person for seven more days. ³⁴ On the seventh day, the priest must look at it again. If the disease has not spread, and it does not seem deeper than the skin, the priest must announce that the person is clean. After washing those clothes, that person will be clean. ³⁵ But if the disease spreads on the skin after the person has become clean, ³⁶ then the priest must look at the person again. If the disease has spread, the priest does not need to look for yellow hair. The person is unclean. ³⁷ But if the priest thinks that the disease has stopped, and black hair is growing in it, the disease has healed. The person is clean, and the priest must announce this.

³⁸ “If anyone has white spots on the skin, ³⁹ a priest must look at them. If the spots on that person’s skin are dull white, the disease is only a harmless rash. That person is clean.

⁴⁰ “A man might begin to lose the hair on his head. It is only baldness, so he is clean. ⁴¹ A man might lose hair from the sides of his head. He is clean. It is only another kind of baldness. ⁴² But if there is a red and white infection on his scalp, it is a skin disease. ⁴³ A priest must look at him. If the swelling of the infection is red and white and looks like the leprosy on other parts of his body, ⁴⁴ then he has leprosy on his scalp. The person is unclean. The priest must announce that he is unclean.

⁴⁵ “People with leprosy must warn other people. They must shout, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ They must tear their clothes at the seams. They must let their hair grow wild,^[g] and they must cover their mouth. ⁴⁶ They are unclean the whole time that they have the infection. They are unclean and must live outside the camp.

^47-48 “Some clothing might have mildew on it. The cloth could be linen or wool, woven or knitted. Or the mildew might be on a piece of leather or on something made from leather. ⁴⁹ If the mildew is green or red, it must be shown to the priest. ⁵⁰ The priest must look at it and put it in a separate place for seven days. ^51-52 On the seventh day, he must look at it again. It doesn’t matter if the mildew is on leather or cloth or if the cloth is woven or knitted. And it doesn’t matter what the leather was used for. If the mildew has spread, the object is unclean because of the infection. The priest must burn it.

⁵³ “If the priest sees that the mildew did not spread on the object, it must be washed. It doesn’t matter if it is leather or cloth, or if the cloth is knitted or woven, it must be washed. ⁵⁴ He must order the people to wash it. Then he must separate the clothing for seven more days. ⁵⁵ After that time, the priest must look at it again. If the mildew still looks the same, the object is unclean. It doesn’t matter if the infection has not spread; you must burn that cloth or piece of leather.

⁵⁶ “But if the priest looks at that piece of leather or cloth, and the mildew has faded, he must tear the infected spot out of the piece of leather or cloth. It doesn’t matter if the cloth is woven or knitted. ⁵⁷ But the mildew might come back to that piece of leather or cloth. If that happens, the mildew is spreading, and the object must be burned. ⁵⁸ But if the mildew did not come back after washing, that piece of leather or cloth is clean, whether the cloth was woven or knitted.”

⁵⁹ These are the rules for mildew on pieces of leather or cloth, whether the cloth is woven or knitted.