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Besides, Aaron as minister was as much concerned in these laws as Moses the legislator. Hence, when a question of defilement had afterwards to be decided, it was brought for judgment before Moses and Aaron conjointly. (See <a href="/numbers/9-6.htm" title="And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:">Numbers 9:6</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-2.htm">Leviticus 11:2</a></div><div class="verse">Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These <i>are</i> the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that <i>are</i> on the earth.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all . . . —</span>Better, <span class= "ital">These are the animals which ye may eat of all </span>. . . . The dietary laws, which stand first in the general precepts about clean and unclean things, begin with the quadrupeds, or land animals, both domesticated and wild. This is in accordance with the Hebrew division of the animal kingdom into four principal classes :—(1) the land animals, (2) the water animals, (3) the birds of the air, and (4) the swarming animals. – Though not specified here by name, yet the parallel regulations in <a href="/context/deuteronomy/14-4.htm" title="These are the beasts which you shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,">Deuteronomy 14:4-5</a> enumerate the following ten animals :—the ox, the sheep, the goat, the hart, the roebuck, the fallow deer, the wild goat, the pygang, the wild ox, and the chamois, with their various kindred species, which are not mentioned. From the expression, “These are the animals,” the opinion obtained during the second Temple that God actually caused specimens of every animal to pass before Moses and Aaron, in order to show them the veritable creatures which are clean and unclean, just as the Lord caused every species to come to Noah into the ark.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-3.htm">Leviticus 11:3</a></div><div class="verse">Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, <i>and</i> cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Whatsoever is clovenfooted, and entirely separateth the hoofs. </span>The first rule laid down by which the clean quadruped is to be distinguished is that the hoofs must be completely cloven or divided above as well as below, or, as the parallel passage in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-6.htm" title="And every beast that parts the hoof, and separates the cleft into two claws, and chews the cud among the beasts, that you shall eat.">Deuteronomy 14:6</a> has it, “and cleaveth the cleft into two claws.” Such is the case in the foot of the ox, the sheep, and the goat, where the hoof is wholly divided below as much as above. The foot of the dog, the cat, and the lion, though exhibiting a division into several distinct toes or claws, is contrary to the regulation here laid down, inasmuch as the division is simply on the upper side, the lower side being united by <span class= "bld">a </span>membrane, and hence the hoof is not “entirely separated.”<span class= "bld"><p>And cheweth the cud.</span>—In addition to the foot being perfectly cloven, the quadruped to be clean is to be ruminating. The canon which obtained during the second Temple is thus formulated: “Every quadruped which has no upper teeth is known to be ruminant, and when it is also clovenfooted is clean.” According to the law of Manu the highest Hindoo castes were also forbidden to eat the flesh or drink the milk of quadrupeds with uncloven hoof. The same was the case with the Egyptian priests: they abstained from eating the flesh of any animal which had uncloven hoofs or many claws.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-4.htm">Leviticus 11:4</a></div><div class="verse">Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: <i>as</i> the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he <i>is</i> unclean unto you.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Nevertheless these shall ye not eat.</span>—As there are some quadrupeds which comply with only one of the two above-named conditions—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>which ruminate but have not their hoofs perfectly parted in two, or, <span class= "ital">vice versâ, </span>are bisulcous and not ruminant—it is here declared that such animals must not be eaten.<p><span class= "bld">As the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not . . . —</span>Better, <span class= "ital">though he cheweth the cud, yet he divideth not, </span>as the same phrase is properly rendered in the Authorised Version in <a href="/leviticus/11-7.htm" title="And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven footed, yet he chews not the cud; he is unclean to you.">Leviticus 11:7</a>. The first animal adduced to illustrate this fact is the indispensable camel, or “the ship of the desert,” as it is aptly called. Though cloven-footed above, the toes of the camel are united below in a large elastic pad on which the camel treads, and which is like the sole of a shoe. Hence it does not come within the category of those animals which are thoroughly bisulcate. The Egyptians, the Zebii, and the Hindus, too, did not eat camel’s flesh, because they supposed it to be heating, and to engender cruelty and revenge; whilst the Persians, the ancient Arabians, and the Moslems feasted upon its milk and flesh.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-5.htm">Leviticus 11:5</a></div><div class="verse">And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he <i>is</i> unclean unto you.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">And the coney, because he cheweth the</span> <span class= "bld">cud, but divideth not . . . —</span>Better, <span class= "ital">though he cheweth the cud, yet he divideth not. </span>(See <a href="/leviticus/11-4.htm" title="Nevertheless these shall you not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he chews the cud, but divides not the hoof; he is unclean to you.">Leviticus 11:4</a>.) The coney, which is the old English name for rabbit, is the meaning of the Hebrew expression <span class= "ital">shaphan, </span>according to the definition of those who had to explain and administer this law at the time of Christ. As these interpreters lived in Palestine, where they saw the animals in question, the objection that the rabbit is not indigenous in Palestine falls to the ground. These shrewd Administrators of the law must also have noticed that it was the habit of the feeble conies to seek refuge and build in the fissures of the rocks, which not unfrequently are on a level with the ground. The rabbit, moreover, well suits the hare, by which it is immediately followed. Modern expositors, however, identify it with the Syrian hyrax, or rock-badger, which is about the size of a well-grown rabbit. It resembles the guinea-pig or the Alpine marmot, has long hair of a brownish grey or brownish-yellow colour on the back, but white on the belly, a very short tail, and short round ears. The action of its jaws when it is at rest resembles that of the ruminants.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-6.htm">Leviticus 11:6</a></div><div class="verse">And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he <i>is</i> unclean unto you.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">And the hare, because he cheweth the</span> <span class= "bld">cud, but.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">though he cheweth the cud, yet. </span>Other nations, too, shunned the flesh of hares. The Parsees considered the hare as the most unclean of all animals, and the ancient Britons abstained from eating it because of the loathsome disorders to which the hare is subject. Like the rabbit, or the hyrax, the hare has not the peculiar stomach of the true ruminant; but, like the rabbit, the hare, when sitting at rest, so moves its jaws that it appears to masticate. As the object of the legislator was to furnish the people with marks by which they were to distinguish the clean from the unclean animals, he necessarily adopted those which were in common vogue, and which alone were intelligible in those days.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-7.htm">Leviticus 11:7</a></div><div class="verse">And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he <i>is</i> unclean to you.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And the swine, though he is clovenfooted, and entirely separateth the hoofs. </span>(See <a href="/leviticus/11-3.htm" title="Whatever parts the hoof, and is cloven footed, and chews the cud, among the beasts, that shall you eat.">Leviticus 11:3</a>.) Having given these illustrations of animals which comply with the first condition only—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>which are ruminant but not bisulcous—and hence must not be eaten, the lawgiver now concludes the list of prohibited quadrupeds with an illustration of a contrary nature—viz., the swine, which comply with the second condition only, but not with the first. Here, too, the description is according to appearance. The feet of the pig tribe generally have four toes enclosed in separate hoofs. The two middle hoofs, however, are much larger, and are divided by a deep cleft, and hence to all appearances the swine is bisulcous. Though the law before us simply describes the swine as wanting in one of the two criteria, like the camel, the coney, and the hare, yet the abhorrence which the Jews, as a nation, have always had of this animal, and the impurity which they have ascribed to it infinitely surpass their repulsion of any other unclean beast. For this reason it became the symbol of defilement and the badge of insult (<a href="/psalms/65-4.htm" title="Blessed is the man whom you choose, and cause to approach to you, that he may dwell in your courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even of your holy temple.">Psalm 65:4</a>; <a href="/psalms/66-3.htm" title="Say to God, How terrible are you in your works! through the greatness of your power shall your enemies submit themselves to you.">Psalm 66:3</a>; <a href="/psalms/66-17.htm" title="I cried to him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.">Psalm 66:17</a>; <a href="/proverbs/11-22.htm" title="As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.">Proverbs 11:22</a>). The eating of pork was regarded as renouncing the Law, and as a sign of apostasy. Hence Antiochus Epiphanes adopted it as a test that those Jews who ate it had forsaken their religion and submitted to his rule. Hence we read that when swine’s flesh was forced into the mouth of Eleazar, the aged scribe, he “spit it forth, choosing rather to die gloriously than to live stained with such an abomination<span class= "ital">” </span>(<a href="//apocrypha.org/2_maccabees/6-18.htm" title="Eleazar, one of the principal scribes, an aged man, and of a well favoured countenance, was constrained to open his mouth, and to eat swine's flesh.">2 Maccabees 6:18-19</a>). During the time of the commonwealth there were no swine in Judea. Hence it was in a “far country” that the prodigal son was sent into the field to feed the swine (<a href="/context/luke/15-13.htm" title="And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.">Luke 15:13-15</a>). The swine in Galilee in our Lord’s time (<a href="/matthew/8-30.htm" title="And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.">Matthew 8:30</a>) were undoubtedly kept by Gentiles for the Roman legion. The very name of swine (<span class= "ital">chazir</span>) was discarded, and the animal was designated by the euphemistic expression, “the other thing.” This “brutish of all animals” was, moreover, regarded as propagating cutaneous and many other disorders. The Talmud declares that “ten measures of pestilential diseases were spread over the earth, and nine of them fell to the share of pigs.” On the other hand, many of the Pagan nations regarded the swine as an emblem of the productive power of nature. Hence they sacrificed them to those deities to whom they ascribed the fertility of the soil, and the fruitfulness of cattle. Thus, the Egyptians offered them in honour of Isis and Osiris once a year at the festival of the full moon. The Athenians, too, offered the swine in their mysteries; so did the Boetians and the early Romans.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-8.htm">Leviticus 11:8</a></div><div class="verse">Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they <i>are</i> unclean to you.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Of their flesh ye shall not eat.</span>—During the second Temple the prohibition was defined to extend to the smallest quantity. If any one ate a piece of flesh less even than the size of an olive he was chastised with stripes.<p><span class= "bld">And their carcase shall ye not touch.</span>—As contact with a human dead body, which was regarded as the most defiling of all, was only forbidden to the priests (see <a href="/context/leviticus/21-1.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, Speak to the priests the sons of Aaron, and say to them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people:">Leviticus 21:1-3</a>), hence the prohibition here addressed to the whole nation was interpreted during the second Temple to apply simply to the occasions when the Israelites came to Jerusalem on the pilgrimage festivals. Contact with a carcase of an unclean animal on these visits precluded the worshipper from entering the sanctuary, from touching sacred things, and from partaking of the sacrificial meats.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-9.htm">Leviticus 11:9</a></div><div class="verse">These shall ye eat of all that <i>are</i> in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">These shall ye eat.</span>—The water animals, which, as we have seen, constitute the second division of the animal kingdom, now follow the land animals. They are discussed in <a href="/context/leviticus/11-9.htm" title="These shall you eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall you eat.">Leviticus 11:9-12</a>. Like the clean quadrupeds, the salt-water and the fresh-water fish must comply with two conditions to bring them within the class of clean. They must have both scales and fins. It will be seen that in the case of the quadrupeds, not only are two criteria given by which the clean animals may be distinguished from the unclean, but that the law is illustrated by adducing ten land animals of the former kind (see <a href="/leviticus/11-2.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which you shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.">Leviticus 11:2</a>), and four of the latter (see <a href="/context/leviticus/11-4.htm" title="Nevertheless these shall you not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he chews the cud, but divides not the hoof; he is unclean to you.">Leviticus 11:4-7</a>). In the case before us, however, not a single typical fish is given by name, and the law itself is expressed in the briefest and most generic manner possible. It was evidently left to those upon whom the administration of the law devolved to define it more minutely in order that it may be observed in practical life. Hence the following expanded definitions obtained during the second Temple:—(1) All fishes with scales have invariably also fins, but fishes which have fins have not always scales. Any fish, therefore, or even a piece of one exposed by itself for sale in the market, which exhibits scales may be eaten, for it is to be taken for granted that it had fins, or that the fins cannot be seen because of their extraordinary smallness. But, on the other hand, a fish with fins may exist without scales, and hence is unclean; (2) Clean fishes have a complete vertebral column, but the unclean have simply single joints, united by a gelatinous cord. To the former class belong, (<span class= "ital">a</span>) “the soft fins,” or the salmon and trout, the capellan and grayling, the herring, the anchovy and the sardine, the pike and carp families, the cod, the hake and the haddock, the sole, the turbot, and the plaice; (b) “the spiny fins,” as the perch, the mackerel, and the tunny. To the latter class belong the shark tribe, the sturgeons with their caviare, the lamprey, and the nine-eyed eel; (3) The head of clean fishes is more or less broad, whilst that of the unclean kinds is more or less pointed at the end, as the eel, the mammalian species, &c.; (4) The swimming bladder of clean fishes is rounded at one end, and pointed at the other, whilst that of the unclean fishes is either rounded or pointed at both extremities alike. It is in allusion to this law that we are told in the parable of the fisherman, which is taken from Jewish life, that when they drew to shore the net with every kind of fishes, the fishermen sat down (<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>to examine the clean and the unclean), and gathered the good (<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the clean), into the vessels, but cast the bad (<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the unclean) away (<a href="/matthew/13-48.htm" title="Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.">Matthew 13:48</a>). The orthodox Jews to this day strictly observe these regulations, and abhor eating those fishes which are enumerated under the four above-named criteria of not clean. It is moreover to be remarked that fishes without scales are also still regarded in Egypt as unwholesome, and that the Romans would not permit them to be offered in sacrifice.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-10.htm">Leviticus 11:10</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>is</i> in the waters, they <i>shall be</i> an abomination unto you:</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Of all that move in the waters.</span>—That is, apart from the fishes exhibiting the above-named signs, all other inhabitants of the water are forbidden. Hence all shell-fish, whether molluscs or crustaceans, and cetaceous animals, are unclean.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-13.htm">Leviticus 11:13</a></div><div class="verse">And these <i>are they which</i> ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they <i>are</i> an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Ye shall have in abomination among the fowls.</span>—The third of the four great divisions of the animal kingdom—viz., the birds of the air, in accordance with their proper sequence—is discussed in <a href="/context/leviticus/11-13.htm" title="And these are they which you shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,">Leviticus 11:13-19</a>. It will be seen that, whilst in the case of the two preceding divisions of the animal kingdom certain signs are given by which to distinguish the clean from the unclean animals, in the division before us a list is simply given of the birds which are unclean and prohibited. This absence of all criteria is all the more remarkable, since after some of the birds mentioned it is added “after his kind,” or “after her kind” (see <a href="/context/leviticus/11-14.htm" title="And the vulture, and the kite after his kind;">Leviticus 11:14-16</a>; <a href="/leviticus/11-19.htm" title="And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.">Leviticus 11:19</a>), thus showing that kindred species were included in the prohibition, and that it was left to those who had to administer this law, to lay down some general signs by which the proscribed species are to be known. Hence the following rules obtained during the second Temple. Those birds are unclean (1) which snatch their food in the air, and devour it without first dropping it on the ground; (2) which strike with their talons and press down with their foot the prey to the ground, and then tear off pieces with their beak for consumption; (3) which “divide their feet” when standing on an extended rope or branch, placing two toes on the one side and two on the other, and not three in front and one behind; and (4) whose eggs are equally narrow or equally round at both ends, and have the white in the middle and the yolk around it.<p><span class= "bld">The eagle.</span>—As the king of the birds, the eagle stands first in the list. It denotes here all the species of the eagle proper. Arabian writers, scientific travellers, and the most distinguished naturalists, concur in their testimony that the eagle eats carrion when it is still fresh, thus harmonizing with the description in <a href="/job/39-10.htm" title="Can you bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after you?">Job 39:10</a>; <a href="/proverbs/30-17.htm" title="The eye that mocks at his father, and despises to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.">Proverbs 30:17</a>; <a href="/matthew/24-28.htm" title="For wherever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.">Matthew 24:28</a>, &c. The assertion, therefore, that the bird here meant is the Egyptian vulture, because the eagle disdains dead bodies and feeds only on what it kills itself, is erroneous. Besides the kindred dialects, all the ancient versions and the best Hebrew scholars place it beyond a doubt that <span class= "ital">Nesher </span>here denotes eagle. Afterwards, however, the carrion-kite and the golden vulture were also reckoned among the different species of eagles. Hence the allusion in <a href="/micah/1-16.htm" title="Make you bald, and poll you for your delicate children; enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from you.">Micah 1:16</a>.<p><span class= "bld">The ossifrage.</span>—That is, the bone-breaker, or simply <span class= "ital">the breaker, </span>is the literal translation of the expression here used in the original, which only occurs again in the parallel passage in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-12.htm" title="But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,">Deuteronomy 14:12</a>. It is most probably the bearded griffin or <span class= "ital">lammergeier, </span>which unites in itself the eagle and the vulture, and is therefore aptly called <span class= "ital">gypaëtus </span>or vulture-eagle, and appropriately stands in the list here between the eagle and the vulture. The fitness of its name may be seen from its habits. It takes the bones of animals, which other birds of prey have denuded of the flesh, up into the air and then lets them fall upon a well-selected projecting rock. and thus literally breaks them in order to get at their marrow, or to render the fragments of the bones more digestible.<p><span class= "bld">And the ospray, </span>or sea-eagle. It is about the size of the golden-eagle, and preys principally upon fish, but also occasionally on birds and other animals, and when its extreme voracity is not satisfied, will devour the most putrid carrion. Hence its place in the catalogue of unclean birds. The word only occurs again in the parallel passage, <a href="/deuteronomy/14-12.htm" title="But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,">Deuteronomy 14:12</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-14.htm">Leviticus 11:14</a></div><div class="verse">And the vulture, and the kite after his kind;</div>(14) <span class= "bld">And the vulture.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the kite. </span>Its name in the original (<span class= "ital">dââh</span>), which literally denotes <span class= "ital">the swift, majestic and gliding flier, </span>appropriately describes this bird, which sails with its expanded wings through the air, where it often pauses as if suspended, watching for its prey. Kites are very plentiful in Syria, and are frequently seen hovering over the plains, the villages, and the outskirts of towns, and looking out for garbage and offal, and hence are often seen in company with the vulture at their useful task of devouring the carrion. Their gregarious habits are referred to by Isaiah (<a href="/isaiah/34-15.htm" title="There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.">Isaiah 34:15</a>), where they are mentioned in company with other raptatores as suitable inhabitants of devastated Edom. The kite is used by different Eastern tribes as food.<p><span class= "bld">And the kite.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the falcon. </span>“The greedy one” (<span class= "ital">ayah</span>), as it is called in the original, fitly describes this most sagacious, sanguinary, and rapacious robber. Its piercing sight is referred to by Job (28:7), where it is translated <span class= "ital">vulture </span>in the Authorised Version, though in the passage before us and in the parallel passage in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-13.htm" title="And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,">Deuteronomy 14:13</a>, it is rendered <span class= "ital">kite. </span>It exists in Syria in a great variety of species, for which reason the text adds “after his kind.” The falcon is eaten in the Levant, and is considered rather delicate.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-15.htm">Leviticus 11:15</a></div><div class="verse">Every raven after his kind;</div>(15) <span class= "bld">And every raven.</span>—The raven or the black bird (<a href="/songs/5-11.htm" title="His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.">Song of Solomon 5:11</a>), the bird of the night, as its name denotes in Heb., like the eagle, occurs frequently in the Bible. It preys upon putrid corpses (<a href="/proverbs/30-17.htm" title="The eye that mocks at his father, and despises to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.">Proverbs 30:17</a>), and is especially eager to pick out the eyes of the dead, and sometimes even attacks the eyes of the living. So great is its gluttony that it fills the air with its wild shrieks when searching for food (<a href="/psalms/147-9.htm" title="He gives to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.">Psalm 147:9</a>; <a href="/job/38-41.htm" title="Who provides for the raven his food? when his young ones cry to God, they wander for lack of meat.">Job 38:41</a>). Its rapacity makes the raven expel its own offspring from their nest and from the surrounding places as soon as they are able to fly, and before they are quite able to procure their own food. Indeed, the ancients believed that it forsook its young immediately after they were hatched. It was in consequence of their excessive greed and known aversion to part with anything, even for their own offspring, that the ravens were chosen to carry food to the prophet (<a href="/1_kings/17-4.htm" title="And it shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.">1Kings 17:4</a>; <a href="/1_kings/17-6.htm" title="And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.">1Kings 17:6</a>), thus to make the miracle all the more striking. The phrase, “every raven after his kind,” clearly shows that the whole genus of ravens is intended, with all the raven-like birds, such as the rook, the crow, the jackdaw, the jay, &c, which abound in Syria and Palestine.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-16.htm">Leviticus 11:16</a></div><div class="verse">And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,</div>(16) <span class= "bld">And the owl.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and the ostrich, </span>as the Authorised Version rightly renders it in the margin in three out of the eight passages in which it occurs, viz., <a href="/job/30-29.htm" title="I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.">Job 30:29</a>, <a href="/isaiah/34-13.htm" title="And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.">Isaiah 34:13</a>; <a href="/isaiah/43-20.htm" title="The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.">Isaiah 43:20</a>; literally, <span class= "ital">the daughter </span>or <span class= "ital">inhabitant of the desert. </span>The ostrich, which is the largest bird and the swiftest of all cursorial animals, was associated by the Hebrews with the terrors of the wilderness, and was regarded by the ancients as an unnatural hybrid, as a kind of half bird and half quadruped. It dwells amongst desolated places (<a href="/isaiah/13-21.htm" title="But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.">Isaiah 13:21</a>; <a href="/isaiah/34-13.htm" title="And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.">Isaiah 34:13</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/50-39.htm" title="Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelled in from generation to generation.">Jeremiah 50:39</a>), fills the air with its doleful and hideous wails (<a href="/micah/1-8.htm" title="Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.">Micah 1:8</a>) and cruelly neglects its eggs to be hatched by the sun or trodden down under foot (<a href="/lamentations/4-3.htm" title="Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.">Lamentations 4:3</a>; <a href="/context/job/39-17.htm" title="Because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding.">Job 39:17-18</a>). Owing to its proverbial stupidity, this hybrid is selected with another monster to illustrate the abundant goodness of the Lord, by showing that even this creature will become sensible of gratitude and break forth into thanksgiving and praise (<a href="/isaiah/43-20.htm" title="The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.">Isaiah 43:20</a>). The flesh of the ostrich was eaten by the ancient Ethiopians, Indians, and other nations. The Romans regarded ostrich brains as a great delicacy. The ostrich occasionally devours fowls and other small vertebrates like a bird of prey, and tradition assures us that ostriches consumed the body of Agag.<p><span class= "bld">And the night hawk.</span>—Of all the unclean birds constituting this list, the one here rendered night hawk is the most difficult to identify. The name in the original (<span class= "ital">tachmâs</span>) simply describes the bird as “the violent” one, or the rapacious, or “the cruel,” and this designation would apply to any bird of prey not already specified in this catalogue. Hence it has alternately been taken for the owl, the night hawk, the male ostrich, the falcon, the seabird gannet, the cuckoo, and the swallow. It will, however, be seen that all the large birds of prey which are here hazarded, have either already been mentioned or are mentioned in the sequel of this list, whilst the small birds, viz., the cuckoo and the swallow, are too insignificant and too harmless to be placed between the large raptorial companions. In this uncertainty of opinion it is best to leave the Authorised Version alone. The name only occurs again in the parallel passage in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-15.htm" title="And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,">Deuteronomy 14:15</a>.<p><span class= "bld">And the cuckow.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">and the sea-gull. </span>Like the foregoing bird of prey, the <span class= "ital">shachaph </span>here mentioned only occurs again in the duplicate list of unclean animals in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-15.htm" title="And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,">Deuteronomy 14:15</a>. It literally means the <span class= "ital">thin, slender, </span>or <span class= "ital">cadaverous </span>bird, and is taken by the most ancient authorities to denote the sea-gull, which is “the raven of the sea.” It darts down with great velocity upon its victim, like a bird of prey. It not only eats fishes, insects, and smaller aquatic animals, but feeds upon carrion. The eggs of the gulls and the flesh of the young birds are to this day eaten both in the East and in some northern countries of Europe.<p><span class= "bld">And the hawk.—</span>Besides the parallel passage in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-15.htm" title="And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,">Deuteronomy 14:15</a>, the hawk (<span class= "ital">netz</span>) also occurs in <a href="/job/39-26.htm" title="Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?">Job 39:26</a>, where it is described as a migratory bird, since it migrates to a more southern climate on the approach of winter. It feeds upon mammals, birds, and amphibia, and attacks even its own parent, mate, and offspring. It abounds in a variety of species in all parts of Asia. Hence the remark “after his kind.” Some tribes regard the flesh of the hawk as very palatable.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-17.htm">Leviticus 11:17</a></div><div class="verse">And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,</div>(17) <span class= "bld">And the little owl.—</span>With the exception of the parallel passage, <a href="/deuteronomy/14-16.htm" title="The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,">Deuteronomy 14:16</a>, this bird only occurs once more, in <a href="/psalms/102-6.htm" title="I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.">Psalm 102:6</a>, where it is properly rendered in the Authorised Version by “owl,” omitting the word “little,” and is described as inhabiting deserted ruins. It not only feeds upon insects and molluscs, hares, rabbits, ducks, geese, and birds of prey, but devours mice and rats, which are especially detested by the Jews. Its flesh is, however, regarded by some tribes as very savoury. The name <span class= "ital">kos </span>which is translated “owl” in the three above-named passages, is the common Hebrew word for “cup,” and it is supposed that it has been given to this bird because the sitting owl especially widens towards the upper part, thus imparting to it a cup-like appearance.<p><span class= "bld">And the cormorant.—</span>Of all the web-footed birds which prey on fish, cormorants are the most voracious. They usually assemble in flocks on the rocks which overhang the sea, whence they drop down from the greatest height upon their victim, dive after it with the rapidity of a dart, and invariably gulp their prey head foremost. The cormorant is to be found in every climate, and is the destruction of all the finny tribe in any fresh-water river which he happens to occupy for a time. Hence he is called the feathered terror of the finny tribe. From the skill which he displays in casting himself down from a great height, and in plunging dart-like after his victim, he derives his Hebrew name, which denotes “darter.” The flesh of the cormorant, though rank, is eaten in some regions; whilst the skin, which is tough, is made into garments. The Hebrew name only occurs again in the duplicate catalogue of unclean animals in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-17.htm" title="And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,">Deuteronomy 14:17</a>. By comp. <a href="/context/leviticus/11-17.htm" title="And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,">Leviticus 11:17-18</a> of the list before us with the parallel list in <a href="/context/deuteronomy/14-16.htm" title="The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,">Deuteronomy 14:16-17</a>, it will be seen that though the two catalogues respectively enumerate in these two verses the same six birds, yet the order is different. The cormorant, which is here second in <a href="/leviticus/11-17.htm" title="And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,">Leviticus 11:17</a>, is in Deuteronomy 14 sixth in <a href="/leviticus/11-17.htm" title="And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,">Leviticus 11:17</a>. There can, therefore, hardly be any doubt that the verse before us has been disturbed, and that by placing the cormorant here sixth, as it is in Deuteronomy, we obtain the two species of owls naturally following each other, as is the case in the parallel catalogue.<p><span class= "bld">And the great owl.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the night owl, </span>as the name in the original (<span class= "ital">yanshûph</span>) denotes “night-bird.” Besides the parallel passage in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-16.htm" title="The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,">Deuteronomy 14:16</a>, this bird of prey only occurs again once more in <a href="/isaiah/34-11.htm" title="But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out on it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.">Isaiah 34:11</a>, where the Authorised Version translates simply “owl,” omitting the word “great,” and where it is associated with the raven and other dismal birds as fit occupants of deserted ruins. According to the description of it which prevailed in the time of Christ, its eyes are directed forward, it utters frightful shrieks in the night, and has a face like a cat, and cheeks like a human being. In consequence of its repulsive visage and human appearance it was considered a bad omen if one saw an owl in a dream. That the two kinds of owls are here mentioned is probably owing to their disgusting habit of ejecting pellets, each one of which contains sometimes from four to seven skeletons of mice. Hence, instead of saying “after his kind,” to include the other varieties, the lawgiver enumerates them separately.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-18.htm">Leviticus 11:18</a></div><div class="verse">And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle,</div>(18) <span class= "bld">And the swan.</span>—The word here translated “swan,” which, besides the parallel list in Deut., also occurs in <a href="/leviticus/11-30.htm" title="And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.">Leviticus 11:30</a>, among the names of the lizards, denotes, according to tradition, another variety of the owl. Whatever difficulty there may be about the true import of the word, it is certainly not the swan. It has, however, also been translated “ibis,” “bat,” “purple water-hen,” “heron,” “pelican,” and “goose.”<p><span class= "bld">And the pelican.</span>—The pelican is one of the largest and most voracious of the web-footed birds. It fills its capacious pouch with fish almost to suffocation, which it disgorges either for its own future consumption, or for the nourishment of its young, by pressing the under mandible against the neck and breast to assist the vomiting up of the contents. Hence its Hebrew name, which denotes “the vomiter.” During this operation the red nail of the upper mandible comes in contact with the breast, thus imparting to it the appearance of blood, which is most probably the origin of the fable that it feeds its young with its own life-blood. The pelican often builds in deserted places as far as twenty miles from the shore. When it has filled its expansive pouch with prey, it retires to its lonely place of repose, where it remains with its head leaning against its breast almost motionless till impelled by hunger to fly to the water in search for a fresh store of victims. It is to this melancholy attitude of lonely desolation that the Psalmist refers when he says, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness” (<a href="/psalms/102-6.htm" title="I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.">Psalm 102:6</a>), and it is to its habit of building in deserted places that the prophets allude when they describe the desolation of Edom and Nineveh by saying that “the pelican shall possess” them (<a href="/isaiah/34-11.htm" title="But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out on it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.">Isaiah 34:11</a>; <a href="/zephaniah/2-14.htm" title="And flocks shall lie down in the middle of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds; for he shall uncover the cedar work.">Zephaniah 2:14</a>). In the last two passages the Authorised Version, which wrongly translates it “cormorant” in the text, has rightly pelican in the margin.<p><span class= "bld">And the gier eagle.</span>—As the name of a bird, this word (<span class= "ital">racham</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>which is here in the masculine form, and denotes “the merciful,” only occurs again in the parallel passage, <a href="/deuteronomy/14-17.htm" title="And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,">Deuteronomy 14:17</a>, where, however, it is in the feminine (<span class= "ital">rachamah</span>). The species here intended is most probably the Gyps, called alternately the sacred or Egyptian vulture and Pharaoh’s hen, which is often figured on the ancient Egyptian monuments. It was regarded with religious veneration in Egypt, both because it prevented epidemics by acting as scavenger, and because of its extreme devotion and tenderness to its young, since it was believed to watch over its offspring a hundred and twenty days every year, and to feed them, if necessary, with the blood of its thighs. Hence it was used to denote both “mother” and “merciful” in Egyptian, and hence, too, its name “merciful” in Hebrew. The ancients also believed that there were no male vultures, and that the females conceived through the wind. It was probably to counteract this superstitious belief that the lawgiver uses here the masculine form and the feminine form in the parallel passage in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-17.htm" title="And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,">Deuteronomy 14:17</a>. The vulture is most loathsome in its habits, and feeds upon the foulest carrion, for which reason it is put in the list of unclean birds.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-19.htm">Leviticus 11:19</a></div><div class="verse">And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">And the stork.</span>—Besides the parallel passage, <a href="/deuteronomy/14-18.htm" title="And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.">Deuteronomy 14:18</a>, the word (<span class= "ital">chasidah</span>) here rendered “stork” also occurs in <a href="/job/39-13.htm" title="Gave you the goodly wings to the peacocks? or wings and feathers to the ostrich?">Job 39:13</a>; <a href="/psalms/104-17.htm" title="Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.">Psalm 104:17</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/8-7.htm" title="Yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.">Jeremiah 8:7</a>; <a href="/zechariah/5-9.htm" title="Then lifted I up my eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.">Zechariah 5:9</a>, and is so translated, except <a href="/job/39-13.htm" title="Gave you the goodly wings to the peacocks? or wings and feathers to the ostrich?">Job 39:13</a>, where the Authorised Version has “wing” in the text and “stork” in the margin. Its name literally denotes in Hebrew “the pious,” “the kind,” and is so called because the ancients regarded it as a type of maternal and filial affection and tenderness. The mother has been known to prefer perishing with its offspring in the flames rather than desert them when its attempts to rescue them from a fire had failed. The white stork is one of the largest land birds. Its black and powerful wings strikingly contrast with the pure white of its plumage. Hence the remark “they had wings like the wings of the stork” (<a href="/zechariah/5-9.htm" title="Then lifted I up my eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.">Zechariah 5:9</a>). The storks build on the loftiest towers and most conspicuous ruins, and also on the tops of high trees, where they may be seen to this day by the Sea of Galilee. It is to this that the Psalmist alludes: “as for the stork, the fir-trees are her home” (<a href="/psalms/104-17.htm" title="Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.">Psalm 104:17</a>). To these nests they regularly return at the proper season, which marks them as the most punctual of migratory birds; and it is to this feature in their nature that the prophet refers: “the stork in heaven knoweth her appointed times” (<a href="/jeremiah/8-7.htm" title="Yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.">Jeremiah 8:7</a>). The stork feeds on fish, reptiles, and all kinds of offal and garbage, for which reason it is here placed in the list of unclean birds.<p><span class= "bld">The heron.</span>—Whilst the two preceding birds are named after their good qualities, viz., “the merciful” and “the pious,” this bird, which only occurs again in the parallel passage in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-18.htm" title="And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.">Deuteronomy 14:18</a>, is termed (<span class= "ital">anaphah</span>) “the angry,” “the cruel,” which aptly describes the heron. It is allied to the stork, and is of such a savage nature that it will defend itself with its beak against the dogs after it has had its legs shot and broken. It resides on the banks of rivers and in marshy places, and feeds on fish, frogs, lizards, snails, field-mice, and all sorts of insects, for which reason it is here included in the proscribed list of unclean birds. It exists in a variety of species. Hence the adjunct, “after her kind.”<p><span class= "bld">And the lapwing.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the hoopoe. </span>This dirty bird, which only occurs again in the parallel list in <a href="/deuteronomy/14-18.htm" title="And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.">Deuteronomy 14:18</a>, and which according to the ancients builds its nest of human dung, feeds upon offal and garbage. Its loathsome smell during brooding-time, and for weeks after, is perfectly insufferable. Though its flesh, which in the autumn tastes like quail’s, is eaten in some places, yet the Mohammedans regard it as proscribed. According to another ancient tradition the bird here meant is “the mountain cock.”<p><span class= "bld">And the bat.</span>—The list which opens with the eagle, the king of the birds, fitly concludes with the hybrid bat, the vilest creature, which is between a bird and a mouse, and is appropriately associated in the Bible with the mole as the type of darkness (comp. <a href="/isaiah/2-20.htm" title="In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;">Isaiah 2:20</a>). From the fact that the air is its home; that like the swallow, which it resembles in mode of flight, it wheels through the air in every direction in search of the crepuscular and nocturnal insects on which it preys; and that it performs the most abrupt and skilful evolutions in its aerial course, the bat was classed among the birds. Bats abound in Syria in a great variety of species. They penetrate into the houses and make the rooms most offensive to live in. Those who have realised the sickening odour of these creatures in the East will readily understand why the loathsome bats are included in the list of unclean birds. Some of the ancient nations ate bats and regarded them as delicious food. Besides being the lowest, the bat is here placed last, because it forms the connecting link between the volatile bipeds and quadrupeds.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-20.htm">Leviticus 11:20</a></div><div class="verse">All fowls that creep, going upon <i>all</i> four, <i>shall be</i> an abomination unto you.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">All the fowls that creep.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">all creeping things which have wings. </span>The swarming animals or insects, which, as we have seen, constitute the fourth class of the Hebrew division of the animal kingdom, are now discussed in <a href="/context/leviticus/11-20.htm" title="All fowls that creep, going on all four, shall be an abomination to you.">Leviticus 11:20-23</a>. From the fact that in the following verse several kinds of locusts are exempted, it is evident that the phrase “creeping things which have wings” denotes insects.<p><span class= "bld">Going upon all four.</span>—That is, the insects in question not only fly but also creep. The phrase, however, “upon all four” does not refer to the exact number of feet, but, as in some modern languages, denotes walking with its body in a horizontal position, or near the ground, in contradistinction to the two-legged birds discussed in the foregoing verses. This is the sense which the administrators of the law in the time of Christ attached to the phrase. Hence the Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan translates it, “And all creeping-things which have wings going upon all four, the flyspecies and the wasp or hornet species and the bee species.”<p><span class= "bld">Shall be an abomination unto you.</span>—As the bee species is included among “the creeping things which have wings,” some have supposed that bee-honey comes within the unclean things which are here said “shall be an abomination unto you.” Hence it is thought that the honey (<span class= "ital">dabesh</span>) which is so frequently mentioned in the Bible as a special feature of the promised land (<a href="/exodus/3-8.htm" title="And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good land and a large, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.">Exodus 3:8</a>; <a href="/exodus/3-17.htm" title="And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.">Exodus 3:17</a>; <a href="/exodus/13-5.htm" title="And it shall be when the LORD shall bring you into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.">Exodus 13:5</a>; <a href="/exodus/16-14.htm" title="And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, on the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.">Exodus 16:14</a>; <a href="/exodus/33-3.htm" title="To a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the middle of you; for you are a stiff necked people: lest I consume you in the way.">Exodus 33:3</a>; <a href="/leviticus/20-24.htm" title="But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.">Leviticus 20:24</a>, <span class= "ital">etc.</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>and which formed an important article of food among the Hebrews, was not the natural product of the bee, but is either the grape-honey, the <span class= "ital">dibs, </span>which is still prepared in many parts of Syria and Palestine, and is exported in great quantities into Egypt; or the vegetable – honey, the exudation of certain trees and shrubs found in the peninsula of Sinai. Hence, too, it is supposed that the wild honey which Jonathan ate in the wood (<a href="/1_samuel/14-25.htm" title="And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey on the ground.">1Samuel 14:25</a>), and which was the meat of John the Baptist (<a href="/matthew/3-4.htm" title="And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.">Matthew 3:4</a>), must refer to this vegetable-honey. But though it is true that the canon which obtained during the second Temple was “Whatsoever cometh from unclean creatures is unclean,” and that in accordance with this law the milk of unclean quadrupeds and the eggs of unclean birds and fishes were forbidden, yet the honey of bees was expressly permitted. The administrators of the law in the time of Christ accounted for this exemption that it is not the direct produce of the insect itself, but is a preparation from gathered juices of clean herbs. The Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan therefore adds, after “shall be an abomination unto you,” the words, <span class= "ital">nevertheless the honey of the bee ye may eat. </span>John the Baptist therefore acted in perfect obedience to the Law when he ate the honey which the bees deposited in the crevices of the rocks and in the hollow of trees. The prohibition to use honey in meatofferings is not owing to its being unclean, but to its producing fermentation. (See <a href="/leviticus/2-11.htm" title="No meat offering, which you shall bring to the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for you shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.">Leviticus 2:11</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-21.htm">Leviticus 11:21</a></div><div class="verse">Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon <i>all</i> four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth;</div>(21) <span class= "bld">Of every flying creeping thing.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">of all winged creeping things. </span>Having laid down the general rule that those creatures which creep along upon their feet in the manner of quadrupeds, and which have also wings, must not be eaten, the Lawgiver now mentions those which form an exception.<p><span class= "bld">Which have legs above their feet.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">which have knees above their hinder legs, </span>that is, those which have the third or hindmost pair of legs much longer and stronger than ordinary insects. Those insects, therefore, in whose hindermost legs the second joint is much larger and stronger, whereby they are enabled to leap <span class= "ital">or raise </span>themselves up with great force and leap a great distance upon the earth, are excepted. These are the locusts. The canonical law which obtained during the second Temple defines more minutely the characteristics of clean locusts. A clean locust we are told has (1) four front feet, (2) four wings, (3) two springing feet, and (4) the wings so long and broad that they cover the greater portion of the back body of the insect. If it possesses these four characteristics it is clean, whether it is with a tail or without it, and whether it has an oblong or round head.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-22.htm">Leviticus 11:22</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Even</i> these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">The locust after his kind.</span>—Of the four species of locusts here specified as permitted to be eaten, this one called <span class= "ital">arbe </span>is the most frequently mentioned in the Bible. It occurs no less than twenty-four times, and is in four instances wrongly rendered in the Authorised Version by “grasshopper” (<a href="/judges/6-5.htm" title="For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it.">Judges 6:5</a>; <a href="/judges/7-12.htm" title="And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.">Judges 7:12</a>; <a href="/job/39-20.htm" title="Can you make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.">Job 39:20</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/46-23.htm" title="They shall cut down her forest, said the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.">Jeremiah 46:23</a>). It is the locust which constituted the eighth plague of Egypt (<a href="/context/exodus/10-4.htm" title="Else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into your coast:">Exodus 10:4-19</a>); which is described as committing the terrible ravages (<a href="/deuteronomy/28-38.htm" title="You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.">Deuteronomy 28:38</a>; <a href="/joel/1-4.htm" title="That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left has the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left has the caterpillar eaten.">Joel 1:4</a>; <a href="/joel/2-25.htm" title="And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.">Joel 2:25</a>; <a href="/nahum/3-7.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, that all they that look on you shall flee from you, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? from where shall I seek comforters for you?">Nahum 3:7</a>); and which swarmed in such innumerable quantities that it became a proverb in the Bible, “like the locusts in multitude” (<a href="/judges/7-12.htm" title="And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.">Judges 7:12</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/46-23.htm" title="They shall cut down her forest, said the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.">Jeremiah 46:23</a>). From these characteristics the <span class= "ital">arbe </span>is supposed to be the flying migratory locust. The administrators of the law in the time of Christ described the <span class= "ital">arbe </span>by the name <span class= "ital">gubai, </span>which is the species most commonly eaten, and ordained the following benediction to be recited before eating it: “Blessed be He by whose word everything was created.” The locusts which are still eaten by the Jews and other Eastern nations are prepared in different ways. Generally they are thrown alive into a pot of boiling water mixed with salt, and taken out after a few minutes, when the heads, feet, and wings are plucked off, and the trunks are dried in an oven or in the sun on the roofs of houses, and are kept in bags for winter use. They are also broiled or stewed, or fried in butter; or they are mixed with butter and spread on thin cakes of bread. In taste they resemble shrimps or prawns. There are shops in some Eastern towns where they only sell locusts, strung upon cords or by measure. The locusts thus form an antidote to the famine they create by the devastation which they commit. They formed, along with “wild honey,” the food of John the Baptist (<a href="/matthew/3-4.htm" title="And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.">Matthew 3:4</a>).<p><span class= "bld">And the bald locust.</span>—This is the only place where <span class= "ital">salam, </span>which is the name in the original, occurs as one of the edible kinds of leaping insects. Any attempt to identify the species is simply conjecture, since all which tradition tells us about it is that this kind of locust “has no tail but has a hump.”<p><span class= "bld">The beetle.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the hopping locust. </span>Though it is difficult to identify the exact species, as the name (<span class= "ital">chargol</span>) does not occur again in the Bible, yet it is perfectly certain that a sort of locust is here intended, since the context clearly shows that four different kinds of the same insect are enumerated. This is moreover confirmed by the administrators of the law in the time of Christ, who assure us the <span class= "ital">chargol </span>is a species of locust having both a hump and a tail, the eggs of which Jewish women suspended in the ear as a remedy against ear-ache. This shows that it must have been a very large kind, and as the name denotes <span class= "ital">the galloping </span>or <span class= "ital">hopping one, </span>it is evidently designed to describe an unwinged species.<p><span class= "bld">The grasshopper.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the small locust. </span>This name (<span class= "ital">chagab</span>) occurs four times more in the Bible (<a href="/numbers/13-33.htm" title="And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.">Numbers 13:33</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/7-13.htm" title="If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;">2Chronicles 7:13</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/12-5.htm" title="Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:">Ecclesiastes 12:5</a>; <a href="/isaiah/40-22.htm" title="It is he that sits on the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:">Isaiah 40:22</a>), and is only in one place rightly rendered by <span class= "ital">locust </span>(<a href="/2_chronicles/7-13.htm" title="If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;">2Chronicles 7:13</a>) in the Authorised Version. From the fact that it is described as laying waste the fields (<a href="/2_chronicles/7-13.htm" title="If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;">2Chronicles 7:13</a>), and that its insignificant appearance is contrasted with giant men (<a href="/numbers/13-33.htm" title="And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.">Numbers 13:33</a>) and with the great God of heaven (<a href="/isaiah/40-22.htm" title="It is he that sits on the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:">Isaiah 40:22</a>), it is justly inferred that it denotes a small devastating locust which swarms in great quantities. According to the authorities in the time of Christ, it is a species which has a tail, but no hump. It was so common that the name (<span class= "ital">chagab</span>) became a generic term for many of the locust tribe. Some kinds bearing this name were beautifully marked, and were eagerly caught by Jewish children as playthings, just as butterflies and cockchafers are sought after by children in the present day. Others again were caught in large numbers, sprinkled over with wine, and then sold. Hence the following two rules obtained during the second Temple: (1) No Israelite was allowed to buy them after the dealer had prepared them in this manner; and (2) he that vowed to abstain from flesh is not allowed to eat the flesh of fish and of (<span class= "ital">chagabim</span>) locusts. Because the edible kinds of locusts are passed over in the parallel dietary laws in Deuteronomy, some have concluded that the eating of these insects was prohibited at the more advanced time when Deuteronomy was written. The fact, however, that John the Baptist ate locusts, and that a benediction was ordered during the second Temple to be recited at eating them, plainly shows the futility of the assertion. The Lawgiver never intended to repeat in Deuteronomy every particular point of legislation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-23.htm">Leviticus 11:23</a></div><div class="verse">But all <i>other</i> flying creeping things, which have four feet, <i>shall be</i> an abomination unto you.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">But all other flying creeping things.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">but all other winged creeping things. </span>Besides the above-named four species and their kindreds, all other locusts, as well as insects of any kind, are to be abhorred as food.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-24.htm">Leviticus 11:24</a></div><div class="verse">And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">And for these ye shall be unclean.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">and by these ye shall be defiled, </span>that is, the beasts and animals specified in <a href="/context/leviticus/11-26.htm" title="The carcasses of every beast which divides the hoof, and is not cloven footed, nor chews the cud, are unclean to you: every one that touches them shall be unclean.">Leviticus 11:26-27</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Shall be unclean until the even.</span>—For coming in contact with the dead body of the animals contracts defilement for the rest of the day, and till the beginning of a new day, which took place after sunset (comp. <a href="/leviticus/23-32.htm" title="It shall be to you a sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even to even, shall you celebrate your sabbath.">Leviticus 23:32</a>). During these hours of legal uncleanness he was not allowed to enter the sanctuary, touch any sacred thing, or have intercourse with those who were legally clean, since contact with one who has contracted legal defilement imparted defilement to both persons and things.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-25.htm">Leviticus 11:25</a></div><div class="verse">And whosoever beareth <i>ought</i> of the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">And whosoever beareth.</span>—But he who removed the carcase out of the camp or city, or from one place to another, not only contracted defilement for the rest of the day, but had to wash the clothes which he had on, since the pollution by carrying is greater than that by touching. During the time of the second Temple, the administrators of the law declared that wherever the Law enjoins that <span class= "bld">a </span>man should “wash his clothes” because of the legal defilement which he contracted, it included the command of bathing the body, and that it was only omitted here and in <a href="/leviticus/11-28.htm" title="And he that bears the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: they are unclean to you.">Leviticus 11:28</a>; <a href="/leviticus/11-40.htm" title="And he that eats of the carcass of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: he also that bears the carcass of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.">Leviticus 11:40</a> for the sake of brevity. The Samaritan text and some Hebrew manuscripts have actually the whole phrase “and wash his clothes and bathe himself in water,” as in <a href="/leviticus/17-15.htm" title="And every soul that eats that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean.">Leviticus 17:15</a> and <a href="/numbers/19-19.htm" title="And the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.">Numbers 19:19</a>. In allusion to this we are told that those who contracted pollution, and have come out of the great tribulation, “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (<a href="/revelation/7-14.htm" title="And I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.">Revelation 7:14</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Ought of the carcase.</span>—The uncleanness was contracted by not only carrying away the whole carcase, but by removing any portion of it. (See <a href="/leviticus/11-32.htm" title="And on whatever any of them, when they are dead, does fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatever 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.">Leviticus 11:32</a>.) The expression <span class= "ital">ought </span>is represented in the original, and is rightly printed in the ordinary type of the text in the Authorised Version of 1611. The printing it in italics is an unauthorised innovation, though it is followed in the <span class= "ital">Speaker’s Commentary, </span>which professes to give the text of 1611.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-26.htm">Leviticus 11:26</a></div><div class="verse"><i>The carcases</i> of every beast which divideth the hoof, and <i>is</i> not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, <i>are</i> unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">The carcases of every beast.</span>—The construction of this text constituted one of the differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducees during the second Temple. According to the Pharisees, or the National Church in the time of Christ, the phrase “that toucheth <span class= "ital">them</span>” in the last part of this verse refers to “the carcases” of the unclean animals spoken of in the preceding verse. It was only when an unclean animal was dead, whether death was owing to natural causes, design, or accident, that contact with its body defiled (see <a href="/leviticus/11-8.htm" title="Of their flesh shall you not eat, and their carcass shall you not touch; they are unclean to you.">Leviticus 11:8</a>; <a href="/leviticus/11-31.htm" title="These are unclean to you among all that creep: whoever does touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean until the even.">Leviticus 11:31</a>); but when alive, unclean animals were freely used. Hence camels, asses, horses, &c, were employed in daily life, though unclean (<a href="/1_chronicles/12-40.htm" title="Moreover they that were near them, even to Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, and meat, meal, cakes of figs, and bunches of raisins, and wine, and oil, and oxen, and sheep abundantly: for there was joy in Israel.">1Chronicles 12:40</a>; <a href="/zechariah/14-15.htm" title="And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.">Zechariah 14:15</a>; <a href="/matthew/21-2.htm" title="Saying to them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway you shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them to me.">Matthew 21:2</a>; <a href="/luke/13-15.htm" title="The Lord then answered him, and said, You hypocrite, does not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?">Luke 13:15</a>, &c.). The Authorised Version rightly expresses this sense by inserting “the carcases” in italics at the beginning of the verse, thus showing that “them” in the latter part of the verse refers to the bodies of unclean animals when dead. Indeed some MSS. have actually “that toucheth their carcases,” instead of “that toucheth them.” The Sadducees, however, took the expression “them” to refer to the living unclean animals, and hence maintained that touching the body of any animal described in this dietary list as unclean defiled. The difference which this interpretation of the text produced in the domestic life and social intercourse of the Jews can hardly be described, since, according to the doctrine of the Sadducees, it was exceedingly difficult to remain undefiled as soon as one of them stepped outside their dwellings.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-27.htm">Leviticus 11:27</a></div><div class="verse">And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on <i>all</i> four, those <i>are</i> unclean unto you: whoso toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the even.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">And whatsoever goeth upon his paws.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">and whatsoever goeth upon his palms, </span>that is, those animals whose feet are not divided into two parts, but which have feet with fingers like a hand, such as the lion, the bear, the ape, the wolf, the cat, &c.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-28.htm">Leviticus 11:28</a></div><div class="verse">And he that beareth the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: they <i>are</i> unclean unto you.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">And he that beareth.</span>—This is simply <span class= "bld">a </span>resumption of <a href="/leviticus/11-25.htm" title="And whoever bears ought of the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.">Leviticus 11:25</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-29.htm">Leviticus 11:29</a></div><div class="verse">These also <i>shall be</i> unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,</div>(29) <span class= "bld">These also shall be unclean.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And these shall be the most unclean. </span>As <a href="/context/leviticus/11-24.htm" title="And for these you shall be unclean: whoever touches the carcass of them shall be unclean until the even.">Leviticus 11:24-28</a> have been occupied with the discussion of the defilement caused by the carcases of unclean quadrupeds, which, as we have seen, belong to the first class of the animal kingdom, the Lawgiver now enumerates those “creeping things” of the fourth class, which likewise cause defilement by touching them. The eight animals here adduced (<a href="/context/leviticus/11-29.htm" title="These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,">Leviticus 11:29-30</a>) are therefore a continuation of the things that go on their belly, mentioned in <a href="/context/leviticus/11-20.htm" title="All fowls that creep, going on all four, shall be an abomination to you.">Leviticus 11:20-23</a>. They only differ in this respect, that in <a href="/context/leviticus/11-20.htm" title="All fowls that creep, going on all four, shall be an abomination to you.">Leviticus 11:20-23</a> the creeping things have also wings, whilst those described here are creeping things without wings. In a stricter sense, however, <a href="/leviticus/11-29.htm" title="These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,">Leviticus 11:29</a>, &c, is a resumption of <a href="/leviticus/11-20.htm" title="All fowls that creep, going on all four, shall be an abomination to you.">Leviticus 11:20</a>.<p><span class= "bld">The weasel.</span>—Though the Hebrew name (<span class= "ital">choled</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>which literally denotes “the gliding” or “slipping in” animal, does not occur again in the Bible, yet the ancient versions and the description given of it by the administrators of the law in the time of Christ place it beyond a doubt that it is meant for weasel. According to these authorities the animal in question lodges in the holes of walls and in ditches, is inordinately voracious, kills other animals of prey much bigger than itself, and carries them off in its mouth. It is especially obnoxious to poultry, for which reason the ventilating holes in hen roosts are made so small that it should not be able to get through them, it has pointed and crooked teeth, with which it pierces through the skull and brain of the hens; it attacks sleeping children and human corpses, and laps water from a vessel. It delights in pilfering bright objects, which it hides in holes. It will be seen that this description given by the administrators of the law during the second Temple, of the animal meant by <span class= "ital">choled </span>can only apply to the weasel, and not to the mole. This is fully supported by the ancient versions, though the word denotes “mole” in Arabic, and is sometimes also used in this sense in the Talmud.<p><span class= "bld">And the mouse.</span>—Besides this passage, this word (<span class= "ital">achbar</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>which is taken to denote “the field,” or ‘corn-destroyer,” also occurs four times in Samuel (<a href="/context/1_samuel/6-4.htm" title="Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden tumors, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.">1Samuel 6:4-5</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/6-11.htm" title="And they laid the ark of the LORD on the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their tumors.">1Samuel 6:11</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/6-18.htm" title="And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of country villages, even to the great stone of Abel, where on they set down the ark of the LORD: which stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite.">1Samuel 6:18</a>), and once in Isaiah (<a href="/isaiah/66-17.htm" title="They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the middle, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, said the LORD.">Isaiah 66:17</a>) and is uniformly translated “mouse.” That this is the true rendering is fully confirmed by the ancient versions and the administrators of the law during the second Temple. Their insatiable voracity and great fecundity make mice destroy the entire produce of a harvest in an incredibly short time. For this reason they became the symbol of destruction in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and obtained the appellation, “the scourge of the field” in the Bible (<a href="/1_samuel/6-5.htm" title="Why you shall make images of your tumors, and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.">1Samuel 6:5</a>). So great was the injury which they inflicted upon the fields in Palestine, that during the second Temple the administrators of the law permitted the Jews to destroy them by any means, even on the middle days of the two great pilgrimage festivals, the Feasts of Passover and of Tabernacles. The mischievous instinct which they have of gnawing at things which they cannot eat, and of penetrating into the sanctuary, and destroying the sacred food and scriptures, made mice peculiarly repulsive to the Jews, who gave them the appellation of “wicked mice,” a name with which they brand any malicious and wicked person to this day.<p><span class= "bld">And the tortoise.</span>—This creature (<span class= "ital">tzâb</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>which literally denotes “the swollen,” “the inflated” (see <a href="/numbers/5-27.htm" title="And when he has made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.">Numbers 5:27</a>), occurs nowhere else in the Bible. That it is not the tortoise is perfectly certain, since this animal, according to the highest legal authority, was not unclean. Thus Maimonides tells us “only those animals mentioned in the Law (<a href="/context/leviticus/11-29.htm" title="These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,">Leviticus 11:29-30</a>) are defiling, but not the serpent, the frog, and the tortoise.” It is certain that the authorities in the time of Christ took it to denote the toad. This is evident from the discussion as to the condition of the man who has touched an animal, and cannot decide whether it is a frog, which is not defiling, or a <span class= "ital">tzâb, </span>which is defiling. As it is the toad, and not the tortoise or lizard, which has such a misleading resemblance to the frog, there can hardly be any doubt that the administrators of the law understood the reptile here to denote the toad. This agrees with the meaning of the name, which, as we have seen, denotes the “swollen one,” and which is one of the peculiar characteristics distinguishing it from the frog, by its having a thick, squat, and more swollen body. The reason why the toad and not the frog is put into the defiling list of reptiles is probably owing to the fact that its shorter legs impart to it more the appearance of a creeping thing, and that it was believed that the limpid fluid which this reptile suddenly discharges when touched is poisonous. Some ancient versions, however, translate it “the land crocodile.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-30.htm">Leviticus 11:30</a></div><div class="verse">And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">And the ferret.</span>—The ancient legal authorities explain this name (<span class= "ital">anâkâh</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>which only occurs here in the Hebrew Scriptures, by <span class= "ital">kipor </span>or <span class= "ital">kipod, </span>“an animal whose body is entirely covered with sharp prickles, and when touched the creature draws in its legs and rolls itself up in a ball.” Its skin in ancient days was tied round the udder of cows to prevent other reptiles sucking out their milk. There can, therefore, be no doubt that the administrators of the law took it to be the hedgehog. Some ancient versions, however, render it by shrew mouse, whilst some modern expositors make it the gecko.<p><span class= "bld">And the chameleon.</span>—The ancient versions agree that by this animal (<span class= "ital">khôach</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>which denotes “strength,” and which occurs nowhere else in the Bible as the name of a reptile, is meant the chameleon. Its power of enduring for a long time without food, which led the ancients to believe that it entirely subsisted upon air, may be the cause both of its Hebrew name (as specified above), and the name chameleon, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>“a lion on the ground,” a reptile with the strength of a lion, The belief that it lives upon the air had also given rise to its Aramaic name in the time of Christ (<span class= "ital">zekitha</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>which denotes the animal that fills itself with air. The perplexity which the administrators of the law experienced about its food, and the time of feeding this creature, may be gathered from the story in the Talmud attributed to one of the sons of Noah, of what happened in the Ark. Sem, the son of Noah, said, “We had much trouble with the chameleon, for whilst we fed the day animals by day and the night animals by night, we did not know what the chameleon fed on. One day, however, I broke open a pomegranate, and a worm fell out of it, which the creature immediately devoured. Afterwards I pounded together fruit, and when it bred maggots the chameleon ate them.” The common chameleon is found in Syria and Palestine, and some eastern tribes believe that its flesh when eaten boiled is a remedy for leanness, and if eaten dry cures fever. In Spain chameleons are kept in rooms to destroy troublesome flies.<p><span class= "bld">And the lizard.</span>—Though the ancient authorities agree that the creature here named (<span class= "ital">l’tââh</span>) is lizard, yet the description which the administrators of the law give of it, does not enable us to define the species to which it belongs. The characteristics which they give of the lizard are as follows: It has a thick though soft and smooth skin, and lays eggs in which the yolk and the white are not separated. Its tail when cut off will move for some time afterwards, and the creature itself when apparently dead will sometimes revive by pouring cold water over it.<p><span class= "bld">And the snail.</span>—This meaning of the Hebrew name (<span class= "ital">chômet</span>) is attested by the highest Jewish authorities of ancient times. It denotes the testaceous kinds, whilst the word (<span class= "ital">shabbel</span>) in <a href="/psalms/58-8.htm" title="As a snail which melts, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.">Psalm 58:8</a> describes the naked species. Snails abound in a great variety of species in the East, and some kinds were eaten by the ancients as a great luxury. It was believed that the slime which it constantly emits as it crawls along brings about its death by a process of dissolution. Hence the remark “and snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away” (<a href="/psalms/58-8.htm" title="As a snail which melts, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.">Psalm 58:8</a>).<p><span class= "bld">And the mole.</span>—The word (<span class= "ital">tinshemeth</span>) here translated “mole” is the same which is used in <a href="/leviticus/11-18.htm" title="And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle,">Leviticus 11:18</a> for an unclean bird. That the Authorised Version, however, gives the correct rendering of the word is not only attested by the ancient versions, but by the following description, which the administrators of the law in the time of Christ give of the reptile here intended. It has no eyes, and burrows into the earth, and destroys the roots. For this reason, as well as for its carrying quantities of corn to its nest, it was ordained during the second Temple that the creature may be killed on the middle days of the two pilgrim festivals, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>of the Feasts of Passover and of Tabernacles. In <a href="/isaiah/2-20.htm" title="In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;">Isaiah 2:20</a>, however, which is the only other passage where the mole occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures, the name for it is <span class= "ital">cnâpar pêrah. </span>We have already seen in the case of the snail that two different names for the same creature are used designedly to describe the different characteristics of the same animal.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-31.htm">Leviticus 11:31</a></div><div class="verse">These <i>are</i> unclean to you among all that creep: whosoever doth touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean until the even.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">These are unclean.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">these are the most unclean, </span>as <a href="/leviticus/11-29.htm" title="These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,">Leviticus 11:29</a>. That is, the eight animals thus enumerated are pre-eminently unclean of all the creeping things.<p><span class= "bld">When they be dead.</span>—The phrase, “whosoever doth touch them when they be dead,” is simply another expression for “whosoever toucheth the carcase of them,” which is used in <a href="/leviticus/11-24.htm" title="And for these you shall be unclean: whoever touches the carcass of them shall be unclean until the even.">Leviticus 11:24</a>. Defilement is only contracted when their dead bodies are touched, but not if touched when alive. According to the canon which obtained during the second Temple, “there is no kind of living creature that becomes defiled while it is alive, or defiles when it is alive, save man only.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-32.htm">Leviticus 11:32</a></div><div class="verse">And upon whatsoever <i>any</i> of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether <i>it be</i> any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel <i>it be</i>, wherein <i>any</i> work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even; so it shall be cleansed.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">And upon whatsoever any of them.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and upon whatsoever aught of them, </span>that is, not only if the whole carcase fell upon any of the specified vessels were the vessels in question defiled, but if a portion of the carcase came in contact with the utensils it made them unclean. (See <a href="/leviticus/11-25.htm" title="And whoever bears ought of the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.">Leviticus 11:25</a>.) According to the law which obtained during the second Temple it was only when the portion of the carcase of an unclean animal had flesh on it that it defiled, but not otherwise. Hence the skins, hair, bones, horns, hoofs, sinews, &c. of all unclean creatures were exempted. These were made into different domestic utensils and implements. The use thus made of the parts in question also constituted one of the differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the time of Christ. The Sadducees regarded every portion of every unclean animal in whatever state as defiling, and hence prohibited its being made up into any vessel.<p><span class= "bld">Vessel of wood.</span>—That is, vessels made of bulrushes (<a href="/isaiah/18-2.htm" title="That sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes on the waters, saying, Go, you swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning till now; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!">Isaiah 18:2</a>), reeds, wicker, shells of nuts, barks of trees, or of anything which grew out of the earth like wood.<p><span class= "bld">Or raiment.</span>—That is, any garment made of a woven material, such as wool, flax, hemp, or anything which grows on the dry land. Hence cloth made of a material which grows in the sea was not defiled, according to the canons which obtained during the second Temple.<p><span class= "bld">Or skin.</span>—This also, according to the same authorities, only applied to the skins of land animals; skins of aquatic creatures received no defilement.<p><span class= "bld">Or</span> <span class= "bld">sack.</span>—From the parallel passage in <a href="/numbers/31-20.htm" title="And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats' hair, and all things made of wood.">Numbers 31:20</a>, we see that by this expression here is meant garments made of stuffs of goats’ hair, in contradistinction to the textures of which the garments were made, denoted by the expression <span class= "ital">beged, </span>“raiment.” (See also <a href="/isaiah/20-2.htm" title="At the same time spoke the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put off your shoe from your foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.">Isaiah 20:2</a>.) Skins which were not made into garments or vessels, or which exhibited unfinished vessels, received no pollution.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-33.htm">Leviticus 11:33</a></div><div class="verse">And every earthen vessel, whereinto <i>any</i> of them falleth, whatsoever <i>is</i> in it shall be unclean; and ye shall break it.</div>(33) <span class= "bld">And every earthen vessel.</span>—The case, however, is different with regard to vessels made of clay and burned in the kiln.<p><span class= "bld">Whereinto any of them falleth.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">where into aught of them falleth, </span>that is, into which any of the aforesaid portion of a defiling carcase falls (see <a href="/leviticus/11-32.htm" title="And on whatever any of them, when they are dead, does fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatever 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.">Leviticus 11:32</a>). Whilst defiled vessels of other materials were made clean by water, earthen vessels, when they became defiled, had to be destroyed (see <a href="/leviticus/6-28.htm" title="But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brazen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water.">Leviticus 6:28</a>), and their contents were rendered polluted.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-34.htm">Leviticus 11:34</a></div><div class="verse">Of all meat which may be eaten, <i>that</i> on which <i>such</i> water cometh shall be unclean: and all drink that may be drunk in every <i>such</i> vessel shall be unclean.</div>(34) <span class= "bld">That on which such water cometh.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">upon which water cometh, </span>that is, all food which is prepared with water for eating becomes defiled when the carcase of such an unclean reptile falls on it. The same is the case with any beverage which is drank from any kind of vessel; if the said carcase falls into it, it is rendered unclean. According, however, to the canons which obtained during the second Temple, the import of the first part of this verse is that things which constitute man’s meat, only then become defiled by the carcase in question when any water whatsoever has been poured upon them, though these articles of food have afterwards become dry; but when they have not been moistened they do not become defiled. By water these authorities understand any of the following seven liquids :—water, dew, oil, wine, milk, blood, and honey.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-35.htm">Leviticus 11:35</a></div><div class="verse">And every <i>thing</i> whereupon <i>any part</i> of their carcase falleth shall be unclean; <i>whether it be</i> oven, or ranges for pots, they shall be broken down: <i>for</i> they <i>are</i> unclean, and shall be unclean unto you.</div>(35) <span class= "bld">And every thing.</span>—That is, not only the above named garments and utensils become defiled by the said carcases, or any portion of them, falling on them, but also everything else is subject to the same pollution.<p><span class= "bld">Oven, </span>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, so formed to keep the heat in longer. (See <a href="/leviticus/2-4.htm" title="And if you bring an oblation of a meat offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.">Leviticus 2:4</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Or ranges for pots.</span>—According to the same ancient authorities this kind of oven was oblong, and was so made that two pots should be placed upon it, and that the fire should burn under both of them. Hence the rendering of the Authorised Version, “Ranges for pots.” This name, however, does not occur again in the Hebrew Scriptures.<p><span class= "bld">They shall be broken down.</span>—Because earthen vessels could not be made clean by washing. (See <a href="/leviticus/6-28.htm" title="But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brazen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water.">Leviticus 6:28</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-36.htm">Leviticus 11:36</a></div><div class="verse">Nevertheless a fountain or pit, <i>wherein there is</i> plenty of water, shall be clean: but that which toucheth their carcase shall be unclean.</div>(36) <span class= "bld">Nevertheless a fountain or pit, wherein there is plenty of water.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">But wells and cisterns being gatherings together of water. </span>But if the unclean carcase, or any portion of it, happens to fall or to be thrown into wells or cisterns, they are to be treated as large collections of water, such as pools, ponds, and lakes, and hence are exempt from contracting pollution. The constant change of water which takes place in these reservoirs counteracts the effects of the polluting carcase. When it is borne in mind how few are the wells and cisterns in the East, and how scarce water is, the merciful provision of this law will be apparent. According to the canon which obtained during the second Temple, this immunity was only applicable to receptacles of water actually in the ground, but not to collections of water in vessels.<p><span class= "bld">But that which toucheth.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">but he who toucheth. </span>But though the water into which the carcase has fallen is mercifully exempted, he who comes in contact with the carcase in the water and removes it from the water is unclean, because the carcase itself remains a source of defilement.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-37.htm">Leviticus 11:37</a></div><div class="verse">And if <i>any part</i> of their carcase fall upon any sowing seed which is to be sown, it <i>shall be</i> clean.</div>(37) <span class= "bld">And if any part of their carcase.</span>—The principle which underlies the immunity from pollution of living water is also at the basis of the exception of living plants. Hence if the carcase or a portion of a dead reptile is found among grain destined for sowing, the quantity of wheat in which it is discovered does not become defiled, since the growing plant constantly derives new elements from below and fresh moisture from above, thus undergoing as many changes in its way as spring water. The law therefore which obtained during the second Temple was as follows :—“Whatever is fixed in the ground does not contract defilement. Plants are not defiled till they are gathered.” Hence the ancient Chaldee version of Jonathan renders this verse: “If any part of their carcase falleth upon any seed that is sown in the manner in which it is commonly sown—that is, in its dry state—it is clean.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-38.htm">Leviticus 11:38</a></div><div class="verse">But if <i>any</i> water be put upon the seed, and <i>any part</i> of their carcase fall thereon, it <i>shall be</i> unclean unto you.</div>(38) <span class= "bld">But if any water be put upon the seed.</span>—The case, however, is different when the grain is moistened, because the fluid softens the corn, and thus enables the defilement of the carcase to penetrate into its very fibres. The wet corn therefore is regarded in the same light as porous clay vessels which become saturated with defilement, and must be broken. (Comp. <a href="/leviticus/6-28.htm" title="But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brazen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water.">Leviticus 6:28</a>.) By water, according to the rule which obtained during the second Temple, the seven liquids mentioned in <a href="/leviticus/11-34.htm" title="Of all meat which may be eaten, that on which such water comes shall be unclean: and all drink that may be drunk in every such vessel shall be unclean.">Leviticus 11:34</a> are meant.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-39.htm">Leviticus 11:39</a></div><div class="verse">And if any beast, of which ye may eat, die; he that toucheth the carcase thereof shall be unclean until the even.</div>(39) <span class= "bld">And </span>if <span class= "bld">any beast.</span>—That is, a clean animal, which is both bisulcous and ruminant, but which has not been properly slaughtered, having died from any disease or accident. During the second Temple, the law here enacted was restricted to quadrupeds, domestic or wild, but was not applicable to birds and fishes.<p><span class= "bld">He that toucheth the carcase.</span>—The carcase, in this case, is to be regarded as the dead body of an unclean animal (see <a href="/context/leviticus/11-24.htm" title="And for these you shall be unclean: whoever touches the carcass of them shall be unclean until the even.">Leviticus 11:24-28</a>), and defiles by contact. (See also <a href="/leviticus/17-15.htm" title="And every soul that eats that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean.">Leviticus 17:15</a>.) This, however, only applies to the flesh of the quadruped. The skin, the bones, the sinews, the horns, and the claws are clean, the sacred Scriptures even being written on the prepared skins; and the horns used for the trumpets or horns of the sanctuary, according to the canons of the Pharisees, whilst the Samaritans and the Sadducees regarded them as polluting.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-40.htm">Leviticus 11:40</a></div><div class="verse">And he that eateth of the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: he also that beareth the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.</div>(40) <span class= "bld">And he that eateth.</span>—That is, ignorantly, since for wilful transgression the transgressor incurred the penalty of excision. (See <a href="/numbers/15-30.htm" title="But the soul that does ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproaches the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.">Numbers 15:30</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/14-21.htm" title="You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself: you shall give it to the stranger that is in your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to an alien: for you are an holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.">Deuteronomy 14:21</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">He also that beareth the carcase.</span>—Removing the carcase of a clean quadruped which died, defiled the person who carried it quite as much as removing the carcase of an unclean beast. Hence the law of purification for the defilement arising in either case is the same. (See <a href="/leviticus/11-25.htm" title="And whoever bears ought of the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.">Leviticus 11:25</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-41.htm">Leviticus 11:41</a></div><div class="verse">And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth <i>shall be</i> an abomination; it shall not be eaten.</div>(41) <span class= "bld">And every creeping thing.</span>—Besides the eight reptiles which defile by touching their carcase, and which are enumerated in <a href="/context/leviticus/11-29.htm" title="These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,">Leviticus 11:29-30</a>, all other creeping things upon the earth, with the exception of those specified in <a href="/context/leviticus/11-21.htm" title="Yet these may you eat of every flying creeping thing that goes on all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap with on the earth;">Leviticus 11:21-22</a>, are to be treated as an abomination, and must not be eaten, though their carcases do not defile by coming in contact with them. From the fact that the creeping things here proscribed are expressly described as “creeping upon the earth,” the administrators of the law during the second Temple concluded that the small worms which do not creep upon the earth do not come within the operation of this prohibition. Hence worms bred in vegetables, fruit, and certain kinds of food are permitted. Thus the worms in figs, dates, and berries, the mites in peas, beans, and lentils, the maggots in cheese, the insects found in the flesh and under the skin of fishes, are not proscribed, and only when they quit the object wherein they have been generated, and creep about upon the ground, are they forbidden. Hence the Chaldee Version of Jonathan renders the passage “and every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you” (<a href="/deuteronomy/14-19.htm" title="And every creeping thing that flies is unclean to you: they shall not be eaten.">Deuteronomy 14:19</a>) by “and all bees and wasps, and all worms of vegetables and of pulse which leave the objects of food and fly like birds, are unclean unto you.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-42.htm">Leviticus 11:42</a></div><div class="verse">Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon <i>all</i> four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they <i>are</i> an abomination.</div>(42) <span class= "bld">Whatsoever goeth upon the belly.</span>—<span class= "bld">In </span>explanation of the general statement made in the preceding verse, three classes of creeping things are here adduced. (1) Those which move by the aid of the under part of the stomach, here described as “going upon the belly,” as serpents (see <a href="/genesis/3-14.htm" title="And the LORD God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; on your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life:">Genesis 3:14</a>) and serpentine worms.<p><span class= "bld">And whatsoever goeth upon all four.</span>—Those (2) which have four legs and yet move like reptiles, as scorpions, beetles, &c.<p><span class= "bld">Or whatsoever hath more feet.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">whatsoever hath many feet, </span>that is (3), those which have a number of such short feet that they cannot easily be discerned by the naked eye, and appear to crawl about upon their stomachs, as caterpillars, centipedes, millipedes, &c.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-43.htm">Leviticus 11:43</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(43) <span class= "bld">Ye shall not make your selves abominable.</span>—By eating the unclean creatures which are constantly characterised in this book as “abominable” (see <a href="/leviticus/7-21.htm" title="Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain to the LORD, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.">Leviticus 7:21</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/11-10.htm" title="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 to you:">Leviticus 11:10-13</a>; <a href="/leviticus/11-20.htm" title="All fowls that creep, going on all four, shall be an abomination to you.">Leviticus 11:20</a>; <a href="/leviticus/11-23.htm" title="But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination to you.">Leviticus 11:23</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/11-41.htm" title="And every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten.">Leviticus 11:41-42</a>)—a term which only occurs twice more in the Hebrew Scriptures (<a href="/isaiah/66-17.htm" title="They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the middle, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, said the LORD.">Isaiah 66:17</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/8-10.htm" title="So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed on the wall round about.">Ezekiel 8:10</a>)—those who do so render themselves abominable and repulsive; hence the admonition. The phrase only occurs once more, viz., <a href="/leviticus/20-25.htm" title="You shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and you shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.">Leviticus 20:25</a>, where it is translated in the Authorised Version, “Ye shall not make your souls abominable.” This is the reason why “soul” is put here in the margin on the word “selves.”<p><span class= "bld">Neither shall ye make yourselves unclean.</span>—But not only is it disgusting to eat these abominable creatures, but their carcases defile and debar him who comes in contact with them from entering into the sanctuary and from partaking of the sacrificial meal.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-44.htm">Leviticus 11:44</a></div><div class="verse">For I <i>am</i> the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I <i>am</i> holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.</div>(44) <span class= "bld">For I am the Lord your God.</span>—As the Lord who is their God is Himself holy, His people, in order to enjoy perfect communion with Him, must also be holy. Hence they must abstain from all these objects of defilement which mar that holy communion. Appealing to this declaration, the Apostle Paul uses the same admonition: “As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy” (<a href="/context/1_peter/1-15.htm" title="But as he which has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation;">1Peter 1:15-16</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy, </span>as the Authorised Version renders exactly the same phrase in <a href="/leviticus/20-6.htm" title="And the soul that turns after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.">Leviticus 20:6</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-45.htm">Leviticus 11:45</a></div><div class="verse">For I <i>am</i> the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I <i>am</i> holy.</div>(45) <span class= "bld">That bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt.</span>—Having in a marvellous way delivered them from the land of bondage to be their God in a peculiar sense (comp. <a href="/2_samuel/7-23.htm" title="And what one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for your land, before your people, which you redeemed to you from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?">2Samuel 7:23</a>), the Holy One of Israel had a special claim upon His redeemed people that they should obey His laws and keep themselves holy as their Redeemer. This signal act of redemption is repeatedly appealed to in the Scriptures, both to show the obligations which the Israelites are under to obey God’s commandments and to expose their ingratitude (<a href="/deuteronomy/8-14.htm" title="Then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;">Deuteronomy 8:14</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/13-6.htm" title="If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, which is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, you, nor your fathers;">Deuteronomy 13:6</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/20-1.htm" title="When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people more than you, be not afraid of them: for the LORD your God is with you, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.">Deuteronomy 20:1</a>; <a href="/joshua/24-17.htm" title="For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:">Joshua 24:17</a>; <a href="/judges/2-12.htm" title="And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves to them, and provoked the LORD to anger.">Judges 2:12</a>, &c.).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-46.htm">Leviticus 11:46</a></div><div class="verse">This <i>is</i> the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth:</div>(46) <span class= "bld">This is the law of the beasts.</span>—This is a recapitulation of the different classes of animals proscribed in the dietary laws. It will, however, be seen that in this summary they are not enumerated in the same order in which they are discussed in the chapter before us. In the dietary law the order of the four classes is as follows :—(1) the land animals, (2) the water animals, (3) the birds of the air, and (4) the swarming animals; whilst the order of the summary is:—(1) the land animals, (2) the birds of the air, (3) the water animals, and (4) the swarming animals. Exactly the same is the case in the summary of the sacrificial law. (See <a href="/context/leviticus/7-37.htm" title="This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings;">Leviticus 7:37-38</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/11-47.htm">Leviticus 11:47</a></div><div class="verse">To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.</div>(47) <span class= "bld">To make a difference.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">that ye may put difference, </span>as the Authorised Version renders the same word in <a href="/leviticus/10-10.htm" title="And that you may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;">Leviticus 10:10</a>. That is, the design of the dietary law is to enable both the administrators of the law and the people to distinguish, by the characteristics and criteria specified above, between what is clean and unclean.<p><span class= "bld">And between the beast that may be eaten.</span>—From the fact that the same word, “beast,” is used in both clauses with regard to the animal which may be eaten and the one which may not be eaten without the qualifying adjunct “clean” and “unclean,” the administrators of the law during the second Temple concluded that the same clean animal is meant in both instances, under different conditions. The clean animal may be eaten when it is in a healthy state, but the same animal may not be eaten when it has organic defects, or is diseased. Hence they enacted the following canon: an animal is perfectly sound when it is capable of conceiving and bringing forth young. This is the reason why the LXX. renders the word beast here <span class= "ital">by viviparous.</span><p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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