Leviticus 11:11, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to God's law given through Moses teaching Israel to distinguish between clean and unclean, declaring the flesh of certain animals unclean and forbidden to eat and requiring their flesh and carcasses to be regarded as detestable. Swine's flesh is one example of that forbidden unclean flesh, along with the flesh of certain other animals. The restrictions limited Israel's use of animal food by identifying animals unfit for food and those least objectionable for food. The related dietary law also forbade eating fat and blood and required that permitted animals be in good condition and properly drained of blood.

The prohibitions were wise laws given to protect life and health by keeping the blood pure through simple, healthful food. Unclean flesh fills the blood with impurities and shortens life, and the other forbidden animals were prohibited because they were not the best articles of food. Swine's flesh in particular is hurtful, filling the system with humors and in that warm climate often producing leprosy, with far more injurious influence there than in a colder climate, and swine were never designed to be eaten under any circumstances. Swine were useful as scavengers, permitted to run free in a fruitful country to devour decaying substances on the ground that would poison the atmosphere, thus preserving health. Submission to these prohibitions would have removed everything injurious to health and left no sickness among Israel, but lust for the forbidden food brought disease.

Daniel and his companions refused the king's food because it included meats pronounced unclean by this law, including swine's flesh and other forbidden meats. They chose obedience to God's command over appetite rather than risking defiling themselves. The command does not justify added arbitrary rules. The Pharisees perverted it by going beyond what God required, imposing excessive rules such as requiring water to be strained lest even tiny insects be swallowed as unclean, burdening people with constant anxiety about what was clean or unclean. Jesus condemned that perversion by contrasting straining at a gnat with swallowing a camel.