Leviticus 11:23

23 'But all other winged insects which are four-footed * are detestable to you.

Leviticus 11:23 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 11:23

But all [other] flying creeping things
Excepting the four sorts before mentioned, wherefore we rightly supply the word "other":

which have four feet;
or more; the Vulgate Latin version adds, "only", but wrongly; for those that have more are unclean, and forbidden to be eaten, excepting those in the preceding verse; and most creeping things that fly have six feet, as the locusts themselves, reckoning their leaping legs into the number; though it may be observed, that those creatures that have six feet have but four equal ones, on which they walk or creep; and the two foremost, which are longer, are as hands to them to wipe their eyes with, and protect them from anything that may fall into them and hurt them; they not being able to see clearly because of the hardness of their eyes, as Aristotle

---

FOOTNOTES:

F1 observes, and particularly it may be remarked of the fly, as it is by Lucian ^F2, that though it has six feet it only goes on four, using the other two foremost as hands; and therefore you may see it walking on four feet, with something eatable in its hands, lifting them up on high, just after the manner of men: now all such creatures that have four feet or more, excepting the above,

[shall be] an abomination unto you;
abhorred as food, and abstained from.

F1 Ut supra. (Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 6.)
F2 De Musca.

Leviticus 11:23 In-Context

21 'Yet these you may eat among all the winged insects which walk on all fours: those which have above their feet jointed legs with which to jump on the earth.

22 'These of them you may eat: the locust in its kinds, and the devastating locust in its kinds, and the cricket in its kinds, and the grasshopper in its kinds.

23 'But all other winged insects which are four-footed are detestable to you.

24 'By these, moreover, you will be made unclean: whoever touches their carcasses becomes unclean until evening,

25 and whoever picks up any of their carcasses shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.

Footnotes

• [a]. V 20, note 1