Bible Commentaries
Leviticus 11

Verse 1

Aaron. God shews him this honour after his consecration, though not always. See chap. xii. and xvii., &c. (Worthington)

Verse 2

Animals which you are to eat, &c. The prohibition of so many kinds of beasts, birds, and fishes, in the law, was ordered, 1. to exercise the people in obedience and temperance; 2. to restrain them from the vices of which these animals were symbols; 3. because the things here forbidden were for the most part unwholesome, and not proper to be eaten; 4. that the people of God, by being obliged to abstain from things corporally unclean, might be trained up to seek a spiritual cleanness. (Challoner) --- These animals had no natural uncleanness: for all things are clean to the clean, Titus i. 15. But they were looked upon as such by the prejudice of the people, and many of them possessed noxious qualities. If they had been the most excellent, the will of God is a sufficient reason to enforce the duty of abstinence; (Calmet) as it was in the case of Adam and Eve. As some animals were adored, and others were deemed unclean by the Gentiles, the Hebrews were commanded to sacrifice some of the former description, and to abhor also the latter, that they might never be so foolish, as to imitate the perversity of the nations, in looking upon any animal as a god. (Theodoret, q. 11.) St. Thomas Aquinas ([Summa Theologiae] i. 2. q. 102. a. 6,) explains at large, out of the holy fathers, the different vices, which the unclean animals represent. (Worthington) --- By the distinction of these creatures, God would have his people known, chap. xx. 24, 26. Those who chose to die rather than transgress in this point, are justly honoured by the Church as martyrs, 2 Machabees vi. and vii. (St. Gregory, or. 20.) (Haydock)

Verse 3

Hoof divided, and cheweth the cud. The dividing the hoof, and chewing the cud, signify discretion between good and evil, and meditating on the law of God: and where either of these is wanting, a man is unclean. In like manner, fishes were reputed unclean that had not fins and scales: that is, souls that did not raise themselves up by prayer, and cover themselves with the scales of virtues, (Challoner) particularly of mortification and penance. (Worthington)

Verse 4

Camel, which hath a hard skin connecting its hoof below. The Arabs and Persians eat its flesh. God will have his people keep at a distance from imitating them; and that is one of the reasons for this and similar precepts. (Calmet)

Verse 5

The cherogrillus. Some suppose it to be the rabbit, others the hedge-hog: St. Jerome intimates that it is another kind of animal common in Palestine, which lives in the holes of rocks, or in the earth. We choose here, as also in the names of several other creatures that follow, (which are little known in this part of the world) to keep the Greek or Latin names. (Challoner) Bochart (Hierozoicon) may be consulted on this subject. He supposes, that the Hebrew shaphan, denotes the Arabian rat called aliarbuho. But the Jews themselves are ignorant of many of these animals. (Calmet) --- Both choiros and grullos, signify swine. The porcupine, or the bear-mouse of Palestine, may be meant. (Menochius)

Verse 6

Cheweth. Some copies of the Septuagint add not, which agrees with the nature of the hare; though the people to whom Moses addresses himself were of a different persuasion. Its hoof is not divided into two parts only, and therefore it is accounted unclean.

Verse 7

Swine. This animal was abhorred by many other nations. If an Egyptian happened to touch one, he plunged into the Nile. (Herod., ii. 47.) Few are to be seen in the East. Yet the people of Crete and of Samos held swine in veneration; and they were offered in sacrifice to Venus, by the Cyprians. They seem designed for slaughter, as they are good for nothing alive. They are very subject to leprosy. (Calmet) --- The Jews would hardly name them, but called them "the beast." Old Eleazer was strongly instigated to pretend at least to eat swine’s flesh, but preferred a painful death before the transgression of God’s law, 2 Machabees vi. 18. (Haydock)

Verse 8

Carcasses. They might be touched while alive, ver. 24.

Verse 9

Eat. The Egyptians, and the priests of the Syrian goddess, abstained from fish. --- Pools. Hebrew and Septuagint torrents. (Calmet) --- Eels are prohibited, &c. (Menochius)

Verse 10

Scales. Numa forbade fish without scales to be used in the sacred feasts. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxii. 2.)

Verse 13

The griffon. Not the monster which the painters represent, which hath no being upon earth; but a bird of the eagle kind, larger than the common. (Challoner) --- Osprey. The sea or black eagle, which is very clear-sighted, and expert at catching fish. Pliny relates, (B. x. 3,) that it tries its young by making them look at the sun, and hurls them down if they refuse. But this seems fabulous.

Verse 16

Ostrich; which was served up at the tables of the Persian kings. Hebrew, "the daughter of the hiena;" (both eiane) or the swan, Isaias xiii. 21. --- Owl, or perhaps the male ostrich, which cruelly abandons its young. --- Larus, the water-hen. (Calmet) --- Some have the cuckow. (Haydock)

Verse 17

Owl, or the onocrotalus, which makes a hideous noise like an assibis, a bird adored in Egypt. Bochart takes the Hebrew to mean an owl, as well as the following term, swan, (Calmet) which is not probable.

Verse 18

Bittern, onocrotalum. See ver. 17. Protestant version has "pelican and the gier-eagle," for porphyrion. (Haydock) --- Its beak and long legs are red. (Pliny, [Natural History?] x. 46.) Bochart understands the vulture, and the Samaritan version the pelican; both of which are remarkable for the care they take of their young. Reme may be derived from rem, "mercy."

Verse 19

CHAPTER XI.

Heron, or "stork," noted for the same quality: chasida, means "piety." --- Charadrion, a kind of heron, (Calmet) mentioned by Aristotle, viii. 3. It is found in deep holes and rocks. (Menochius) --- Some translate parrot, peacock, kite, &c. Anapha,may denote a bird easily vexed. (Calmet) --- Houp, or lapwing. (Haydock) --- Bat. Strabo (xvii.) speaks of some very large, which were salted and eaten at Borsippe.

Verse 20

Feet. Such as bees, (Calmet) and other insects of which he speaks. (Menochius)

Verse 21

Walketh. Hebrew adds lo, "not." But the Massorets read lu, "to it," agreeably to the Vulgate. (Calmet) --- Protestant version, "Yet these may ye eat, of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth."

Verse 22

Locust. The three former are species of the same kind. The bruchus is a young locust, without wings, (St. Augustine in Psal. civ.,) and the attachus the least of all. (Pliny, xxix. 5.) The ophiomachus is large, "encounters serpents," and is destitute of wings. The nations called Acridophagi, received their name from their feeding upon locusts, which are the food of the common people in Syria and Africa. See Pliny, xi. 29, &c. Clenard, in 1541, wrote from Fez, that he had seen the sky darkened with clouds of locusts, which the people endeavoured presently to destroy, and filled wagons with their bodies, for food. Kirsten says, they are very delicious. Arnulph assures us, that they are a finger’s breadth, and are fried in oil by the poor. (Raban. in Matthew iii. 4.) See Joel ii. (Calmet) --- There is no need, therefore, of having recourse to crab fish and wild pears, for John the Baptist’s food, as Beza has done. (Tirinus)

Verse 23

Only. Equal in length, ver. 20-21. (Menochius)

Verse 24

Evening. If he were guilty of sin in so doing, contrition would be necessary to regain God’s favour. (Worthington) --- But the legal uncleanness would not be removed till the evening; as the one might subsist while the other was remitted. (Haydock)

Verse 25

Necessary. To prevent the obstruction of the road, or the infection of the air. (Menochius) --- When any person touched these carcasses, he was obliged to wash his clothes immediately, and still to refrain from touching any thing sacred till sun-set. (Estius) --- If a dog chanced to die in the house of an Egyptian, all the family shaved their hair and began to mourn. The food and wine in the house could no longer be used. (Eusebius, præp. ii. 1.) They adored the dog. But other nations, which did not adore animals, esteemed those unworthy of sacred things who had touched a carcass, though they invoked their gods by slaying beasts, as Porphyrius remarks. (Eusebius, præp. v. 10.) They put off their shoes when they enter certain temples, for the same reason. Scortea non ulli fas est inferre sacello---ne violent puros exanimata Deos.

Verse 26

It. When dead. It was lawful to ride on a camel, but not to eat its flesh.

Verse 27

Hands. Like a monkey, frog, &c., the fore-feet of which rather resemble hands.

Verse 29

Weasel. Bochart understands the mole, in opposition to all the versions: choled, means indeed "to root up the earth." (Calmet)

Verse 30

Chameleon, feeds upon air, and assumes various colours. (Pliny, viii. 33.) It resembles a lizard, as does the stellio, Pliny, xxix. 4. --- Lizard. Protestant, "snail." (Haydock)

Verse 33

Broken. See chap. vi. 28, where a similar injunction is given. (Menochius) --- And (ver. 35,) ovens and pots, made of earthenware, according to Pollux are to be destroyed. (Tirinus)

Verse 34

Water, unclean, or in a polluted vessel.

Verse 36

Clean. They would be so difficult to purify, and water is so necessary.

Verse 38

Defiled, and given to the beasts. (Menochius)

Verse 39

Beast die a natural death, or be suffocated, or be slain by a wild beast. (Calmet)

Verse 40

Clothes, and his whole body, either together or separate, as the Rabbins explain the law. (Selden, syn. i. 3.) If any one eat or touch these things, on purpose, he was liable to a more severe punishment, (Menochius) and his soul was defiled by disobedience, ver. 43. (Calmet)

Verse 42

Abominable. Serpents, worms, and reptiles are proscribed. (Menochius)

Verse 44

Holy, and detest the uncleanness of the Gentiles, in their sacrifices and feasts. (St. Augustine, City of God vi. 7.)

Verse 45

Your God. By these laws, the Jews were to be distinguished from other nations. (Haydock) --- They were also to be reminded, that God was very jealous of their interior sanctity, since he required so great a legal purity. Without the former, they might easily conclude that the latter would not please him. (Calmet)