Charles Ellicott Commentary


Charles Ellicott Commentary
"And every thing whereupon [any part] of their carcass falleth shall be unclean; whether oven, or range for pots, it shall be broken in pieces: they are unclean, and shall be unclean unto you." — Leviticus 11:35 (ASV)
And every thing. —That is, not only the previously mentioned garments and utensils become defiled by these carcasses, or any portion of them, falling on them, but also everything else is subject to the same pollution.
Oven, as the context shows, is an earthen vessel or baking-pot for making thin unleavened cakes, which, according to the ancient description of it, was wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, shaped this way to keep the heat in longer. (See Leviticus 2:4.)
Or ranges for pots. —According to the same ancient authorities, this kind of oven was oblong and was designed so that two pots could be placed upon it, and the fire would burn under both of them. Hence the rendering of the Authorized Version, “Ranges for pots.” This name, however, does not occur again in the Hebrew Scriptures.
They shall be broken down. —Because earthen vessels could not be made clean by washing. (See Leviticus 6:28.)