What Does Leviticus 11:43 Mean in the King James?
Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
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 Hebrew repeats one root for “unclean” and “defiled,” while calling the creature a “swarm that swarms”: the verse ties the living self to what it encounters.
THE MEANING
The verse locates the boundary in the living self: relation to the swarming creatures named here makes the self unclean and defiled. The Hebrew repeats one impurity root in both clauses, pressing the consequence rather than naming two unrelated conditions. The self is not untouched by what it joins.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the self remains unchanged by what it joins: the verse says it can be made detestable, unclean, and defiled through that relation.
THE ROOT
תִּטַּמְּאוּ
titamme'u
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
Be or become unclean; be defiled.
“unclean ... defiled” in this verse is titamme'u. English uses “unclean” and “defiled,” but both Hebrew verbs repeat the root טמא. That echo carries the warning forward as one unfolding condition rather than two separate labels.
ALSO GROWS
ṭamēʾ: Unclean.
טָמֵא
This form names the state the repeated verbs describe.
ṭumʾāh: Uncleanness, impurity.
טֻמְאָה
This noun gives the same root a name for the condition itself.
הַשֶּׁרֶץ הַשֹּׁרֵץ
ha-sherets ha-shoretz
GROWS FROM
שרץ
Swarm, teem, multiply.
“creeping thing that creepeth” in this verse is ha-sherets ha-shoretz. The KJV phrase translates a noun and a participle from the same root: literally, a “swarm that swarms.” The Hebrew repetition describes teeming life in motion, beyond the English picture of a single creature crawling.
ALSO GROWS
sherets: A swarm or swarming creature.
שֶׁרֶץ
This noun names the creature at the center of the verse’s boundary.
shoretz: Swarming, that swarms.
שֹׁרֵץ
This participle repeats the noun’s root and makes the creature’s teeming action explicit.
תְּשַׁקְּצוּ
teshaqqetsu
GROWS FROM
שׁקץ
Abhor or regard as detestable; make detestable.
“make yourselves abominable” in this verse is teshaqqetsu. The clause says תְּשַׁקְּצוּ אֶת־נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם (teshaqqetsu et-nafshotekhem): make your נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם (nafshotekhem, living selves) detestable. The root connects that condition of the self with the detestable thing named by its noun branches.
ALSO GROWS
sheqets: A detestable thing.
שֶׁקֶץ
This noun names the category of thing that shares the root of the verb applied to the self.
shiqquts: An abomination, a detestable thing.
שִׁקּוּץ
This related noun keeps the root’s sense of abhorrence visible across another form.
THE PATTERN
The Hebrew root for swarming names both teeming life in creation and the creatures whose relation to the self carries a boundary.
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:THE THREAD
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.Genesis and Leviticus share the root שרץ (sharats, swarm or teem): Genesis names the waters’ swarming creatures, and Leviticus calls them the “swarm that swarms.” Genesis also describes them as נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה (nefesh chayyah, living soul), showing that the creatures at this boundary still belong to teeming life.
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