Leviticus 11:20

20 "All winged insects that go upon all fours are an abomination 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 pelican, the carrion vulture,

19 the stork, the heron according to its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

20 "All winged insects that go upon all fours are an abomination to you.

21 Yet among the winged insects that go on all fours you may eat those which have legs above their feet, with which to leap on the earth.

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.