Leviticus 11:20

20 'All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Leviticus 11:20 In-Context

18 the white owl, the jackdaw, and the carrion vulture;

19 the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

20 'All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you.

21 Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth.

22 These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind.