What Does Deuteronomy 14:7 Mean?

Nevertheless, these you shall not eat from among those that bring up the cud or split the hoof, such as the camel, the hare, and the coney, for they bring up the cud but do not split the hoof. Therefore they are unclean to you.

Deuteronomy 14:7 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.

THE KEY

In Hebrew, the word for “hoof” is tied to the root for “split,” so the missing sign is encoded in the very body part named.

THE MEANING

The camel, hare, and coney carry one sign: they chew the cud. Their hoof is not split, so they do not fit the paired description for animals that may be eaten. The verse holds the category to both signs together.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

One matching feature is enough to satisfy the whole stated standard.

THE ROOT

הִפְרִיסוּ

hiphrîsû

GROWS FROM

פרס

p-r-s

to split or break into parts

“split the hoof; do not split the hoof” in this verse is hiphrîsû. English presents “hoof” and “divide” as separate pieces; Hebrew ties the hoof-word to the root for splitting, lodging the distinction in the creature’s foot. The same root describes breaking bread apart, keeping its sense concrete: division into parts.

ALSO GROWS

parsah: hoof

פַּרְסָה

This hoof-word belongs to the split/divide root, so the feature being checked is bound to the name of the body part.

paras: to split, break, or deal out

פָּרַס

Isaiah 58:7 uses this root for dealing bread to the hungry: bread is divided and shared.

טְמֵאִים

ṭəmēʾîm

GROWS FROM

טמא

ṭ-m-ʾ

to be unclean or ritually impure

Here, tame’im marks the animals’ status within the food boundary. The label follows the bodily signs named in the verse, making “unclean” a classification in this passage.

ALSO GROWS

ṭāmēʾ: unclean

טָמֵא

This singular form names the same status assigned to the animals in the verse.

ṭumʾāh: impurity or uncleanness

טֻמְאָה

This noun names the condition expressed by the unclean classification.

THE PATTERN

Scripture marks food boundaries through named categories of clean and unclean, with those categories shaping what may be received.

And every beast that splits the hoof and is cleft through in two, and brings up the cud among the beasts, you shall eat.

Deuteronomy 14:6 · SDVThe verse states the paired bodily signs that define the permitted food category.

Yet these you may not eat, of those that bring up the cud or split the hoof. The camel brings up the cud but does not split the hoof, so it is unclean to you.

Leviticus 11:4 · SDVThe same food boundary classifies the camel by its cud-chewing and undivided hoof.

And the voice spoke to him again the second time, What God has cleansed, do not make common.

Acts 10:15 · SDVThe clean and common categories are named directly in a vision about what may be received as food.

THE THREAD

Is it not to break your bread for the hungry, and to bring the wandering poor into your house? When you see the naked, cover him, and do not hide yourself from your own flesh.

Isaiah 58:7 · SDV

The Hebrew root ⁨פרס⁩ links “divide” in this verse with “deal” in Isaiah’s phrase for sharing bread with the hungry. In one verse the root marks a split hoof; in the other, divided bread.

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