Leviticus 11:20

20 All winged insects that walk upon all fours are 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Leviticus 11:20 In-Context

18 the water hen, the desert owl, the carrion vulture,

19 the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

20 All winged insects that walk upon all fours are detestable to you.

21 But among the winged insects that walk on all fours you may eat those that have jointed legs above their feet, with which to leap on the ground.

22 Of them you may eat: the locust according to its kind, the bald locust according to its kind, the cricket according to its kind, and the grasshopper according to its kind.