Leviticus 11:10

10 All other things living and moving in the water, in the sea or in the rivers, are a disgusting thing to you;

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.

---

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 Their flesh may not be used for food, and their dead bodies may not even be touched; they are unclean to you.

9 These you may have for food of all things living in the water: anything living in the water, in the seas or rivers, which has special parts for swimming and skin formed of thin plates, may be used for food.

10 All other things living and moving in the water, in the sea or in the rivers, are a disgusting thing to you;

11 They may not be used for food, and their dead bodies are disgusting to you.

12 Anything in the water which has no special parts for swimming and no thin plates on its skin is disgusting to you.