Leviticus 11:10

10 But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to regard as unclean.

Leviticus 11:10 in Other Translations

10 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:

10 But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you.

10 But you must never eat animals from the sea or from rivers that do not have both fins and scales. They are detestable to you. This applies both to little creatures that live in shallow water and to all creatures that live in deep water.

10 But anything that doesn't have fins and scales, whether in seas or streams, whether small creatures in the shallows or huge creatures in the deeps, you are to detest.

10 But these are to be detestable to you: everything that does not have fins and scales in the seas or streams, among all the swarming things and [other] living creatures in the water.

Leviticus 11:10 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 11:10

And all that have not fins nor scales in the seas, and in
the rivers
Such as eels, lampreys, &c.

of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which [is]
in the waters;
the former of these are interpreted by Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom of little fishes that have but a small body, and such as are created out of the waters; and the latter, of such as are produced of a male and female; or, as Maimonides ^F18 explains it, the one signifies the lesser creatures, such as worms and horse leeches; the other greater ones, sea beasts, as sea dogs

they shall be an abomination to you;
not only unclean, and so unfit to eat, but to be had in abhorrence and detestation, as being exceeding disagreeable and unwholesome; and, as a learned man observes ^F19, to these prohibited in general belong all those animals in lakes, rivers, or seas, which are of a slow motion, and which, because of the slow motion of their bodies, do not so well digest their food; and for that may be compared with four footed beasts that have but one belly, and so unwholesome as they.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 Hilchot Maacolot Asuret, l. 1. c. 2. sect. 12.
F19 Scheuchzer. ut supra, (Physic. Sacr. vol. 2.) p. 287.

Leviticus 11:10 In-Context

8 You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

9 “ ‘Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams you may eat any that have fins and scales.

10 But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to regard as unclean.

11 And since you are to regard them as unclean, you must not eat their meat; you must regard their carcasses as unclean.

12 Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be regarded as unclean by you.

Cross References

• 1. ver 12; Leviticus 7:18