What Does Deuteronomy 14:9 Mean in the King James?

These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat:

Deuteronomy 14:9 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

Two visible marks distinguish which life in the waters becomes food.

THE MEANING

Your relation to sustenance is not undifferentiated: the verse names two marks that determine which water-life enters the table. Its repeated “all” keeps the field broad, while the paired signs give what may be received a precise boundary.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that everything drawn from one source is alike and equally fit to receive.

THE ROOT

תֹּאכֵלוּ

tokhelu

GROWS FROM

אכל

ʾ-k-l

Eat, consume.

The Hebrew repeats “eat” around the two signs, placing them at the boundary between life in the waters and what becomes nourishment. The same root also names food itself, linking the act of eating with what is received as food.

ALSO GROWS

ʾokhel: Food; that which is eaten.

אֹכֶל

This noun from the same root names the result of the action: what the signs mark out as food.

maʾakhal: Food; something to eat.

מַאֲכָל

It carries the same root into the idea of provision, connecting the verse’s boundary with what sustains.

THE PATTERN

A broad field becomes legible through distinctions that govern what may be received.

These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.

Leviticus 11:9 · KJVThe same two signs mark which life in the waters may be received as food.

Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

Matthew 13:48 · KJVThe catch comes from a broad field, then is sorted into what is kept and what is cast away.

And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

Acts 10:15 · KJVThe verse names a boundary between what is received as clean and what is called common.

THE THREAD

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Genesis 1:29 · KJV

“Meat” here translates a form of ⁨אכל⁩, the same root as “eat” in Deuteronomy. The shared root connects the act of eating with the provision received as food; this verse marks which water-life enters that provision.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us