Leviticus 11:20

20 " 'Any {winged insect} that walks on [all] fours [is] 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.


FOOTNOTES:

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

Leviticus 11:20 In-Context

18 and the barn owl and the desert owl and the carrion vulture,
19 and the stork, the heron according to its kind and the hoopoe and the bat.
20 " 'Any {winged insect} that walks on [all] fours [is] detestable to you.
21 Only this may you eat from any of {the winged insects} that walk on [all] fours--[that] which has jointed legs above its feet for leaping upon the land.
22 {From these} you may eat the locust according to its kind and the bald locust according to its kind and the cricket according to its kind and the grasshopper according to its kind.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Literally "swarmer of the wing"
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