What Does Leviticus 11:42 Mean in the King James?
Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination.
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
“Creeping things that creep” repeats one Hebrew root, whose wider reach also describes waters teeming with life.
THE MEANING
The verse sets a boundary around what enters the body by the creature’s movement: belly to ground, on all fours, or with many feet among the swarmers. The repeated Hebrew root names both the creature and its swarming motion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that every living creature is available as food falls away here: life does not erase the boundary around what the body receives.
THE ROOT
הַשֶּׁרֶץ הַשֹּׁרֵץ
ha-sherets ha-shoretz
GROWS FROM
שרץ
To swarm, teem, or proliferate.
The noun and participle repeat the same root: sherets ha-shoretz, a swarming thing that swarms. English keeps the repetition in “creeping things that creep,” but the root also describes waters teeming with life in Genesis 1:20, giving the word a wider reach than crawling alone.
ALSO GROWS
sherets: A swarming or teeming creature.
שֶׁרֶץ
This noun names the creature as part of a swarming kind.
sharats: To swarm, teem, or multiply.
שָׁרַץ
The verb supplies the motion repeated in “that creep.”
yishretsu: Let them swarm or teem.
יִשְׁרְצוּ
In Genesis 1:20, this form describes the waters teeming with living creatures, showing the same root’s broader image of abundant life.
THE PATTERN
Scripture identifies creatures through bodily movement and carries those distinctions into questions of what may be eaten.
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten.But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.THE THREAD
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:The Hebrew word for “belly,” גָּחוֹן (gachon), also appears in “upon thy belly shalt thou go.” That shared word links this verse’s ground-bound posture to the serpent’s named movement.
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