[The carcasses] of every beast which divideth the hoof,
and is not cloven footed
As the camel:
nor cheweth the cud;
though it may divide the hoof, as the swine; and on the other hand, such as may chew the cud, and yet not dividing the hoof, as the coney and hare; for the Scripture here, as Aben Ezra observes again, uses a short and concise way of speaking: these
[are] unclean unto you;
to be reckoned by them such, and neither to be eaten nor touched:
everyone that toucheth them shall be unclean;
until the evening; and obliged to washing, though not expressed: this is not to be understood of touching them while alive, as some Sadducees or Karaites understand it, according to Aben Ezra; for camels, horses, mules might be, and were rode upon, and so touched; but of them when dead, or their carcases, as is rightly supplied in the beginning of the verse; and the Jewish writers F3 understand this of the flesh of the carcass only, not of the bones, horns, and hoofs, which, they say, do not defile, only the flesh: this is repeated from ( Leviticus 11:8 ) .