Leviticus 11:20

Clean and Unclean Flying Insects

20 "All winged insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you.

Leviticus 11:20 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 11:20

All fowls that creep
Or rather "every creeping thing that flies"; for what are designed are not properly fowls, but, as the Jewish writers interpret them, flies, fleas, bees, wasps, hornets, locusts so the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, Ben Gersom, and Maimonides F25:

going upon [all] four;
that is, upon their four feet, when they walk or creep:

[these shall be] an abomination to you;
not used as food, but detested as such.


FOOTNOTES:

F25 Maacolot Asurot, c. 2. l. 5.

Leviticus 11:20 In-Context

18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey,
19 the stork, the various kinds of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.
20 "All winged insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you.
21 But you may eat these kinds of all the winged insects that walk on all fours: those that have jointed legs above their feet for hopping on the ground.
22 You may eat these: the various kinds of locust, the various kinds of katydid, the various kinds of cricket, and the various kinds of grasshopper.
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