What Does Leviticus 11:33 Mean in the King James?
And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean; and ye shall break it.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The vessel cannot shield its contents from what enters: the change reaches everything inside, and the vessel itself is broken.
THE MEANING
When one of them falls into an earthen vessel, everything in it becomes unclean, and the vessel is broken. What enters changes the status of the whole interior; the vessel does not keep its contents untouched.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a vessel can contain an intrusion without its contents sharing the change.
THE ROOT
יִטְמָא
yitmaʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
To be or become ritually unclean.
“unclean” in this verse is yitmaʾ. The root describes a changed purity status, and the verse applies it to everything inside the vessel. The effect reaches the contents, not just the point where the creature enters.
ALSO GROWS
tumʾah: Ritual impurity
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the impurity whose status the contents acquire.
tame: Unclean; to be unclean
טָמֵא
This form makes clear that the verse describes a state the contents enter.
תִּשְׁבֹּרוּ
tishberu
GROWS FROM
שבר
sh-b-r
To break or shatter.
“break” in this verse is tishberu. The command uses the root for literal breakage: the vessel is not emptied or rinsed but broken. That makes the response to the changed purity status concrete and final for this container.
ALSO GROWS
shever: Breakage, fracture, ruin
שֶׁבֶר
This noun carries the same root’s sense of something fractured or broken apart.
nishbar: Broken, shattered
נִשְׁבָּר
This form shares the root used for the vessel’s commanded breaking.
THE PATTERN
Ritual impurity moves through contact and entry, changing the status of what a boundary contains.
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.This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.THE THREAD
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.The Hebrew root שבר (shavar, to break) appears here as תִּשְׁבֹּרוּ (tishberu, you shall break) and in Psalm 51:17 as נִשְׁבָּר (nishbar, broken). Here it describes a vessel that must be broken; in the psalm, the broken heart is not despised.
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