Leviticus 11:10

10 But any that does not have a fin and scales, [whether] in the seas or in the streams, {among} all the water's swarmers among all the living creatures that [are] in the water--they [are] a detestable 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.

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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 You must not eat from their meat, and you must not touch their dead body--they are unclean for you.

9 " 'These you may eat from all that [are] in the water: any in the water that has a fin and scales, [whether] in the seas or in the streams--such you may eat.

10 But any that does not have a fin and scales, [whether] in the seas or in the streams, {among} all the water's swarmers among all the living creatures that [are] in the water--they [are] a detestable thing to you.

11 And they shall be detestable to you; you must not eat from their meat, and you must detest their dead body.

12 Any that does not have a fin and scales in the water--it [is] a detestable thing to you.

Footnotes

• [a] Or "and"
• [b] Literally "from"