What Does Leviticus 11:37 Mean in the King James?
And if any part of their carcase fall upon any sowing seed which is to be sown, it shall be clean.
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 carcass falls on seed whose Hebrew wording repeats the root of sowing three times, yet the seed remains clean.
THE MEANING
A carcass falls onto seed meant for sowing, and the seed remains clean. The next verse marks a material boundary: when water is put on that same seed, the carcass makes it unclean. The contact is the same; the seed’s condition changes the ruling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the blanket assumption that every object touched by a carcass becomes unclean: here, seed meant for sowing stays clean until water changes its condition.
THE ROOT
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
ז־ר־ע
z-r-ʿ
To sow or scatter seed.
“seed / to be sown” in this verse is zeraʿ. The verse repeats this root in its words for “seed,” “sowing,” and “is to be sown.” What English can make sound redundant is a threefold emphasis: this is seed in its identity and its intended movement into the ground.
ALSO GROWS
zeraʿ: Seed; also offspring or descendants.
זֶרַע
The word names both what is planted and what carries life forward.
zēruaʿ: Sowing; that which is sown.
זֵרוּעַ
It ties the seed directly to the act and purpose of sowing.
yizzāreʿ: Is sown; is to be sown.
יִזָּרֵעַ
The verse repeats the root once more to specify the seed’s intended destination.
THE PATTERN
Seed carries a future within itself, while its present condition governs what happens next.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.But if any water be put upon the seed, and any part of their carcase fall thereon, it shall be unclean unto you.Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:THE THREAD
But if any water be put upon the seed, and any part of their carcase fall thereon, it shall be unclean unto you.The next verse repeats the ז־ר־ע (z-r-ʿ) seed-and-sowing root, then adds water as the decisive condition. It shows the boundary of this verse’s ruling: the carcass leaves the seed clean until water is put on it.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us