What Does Leviticus 11:6 Mean in the King James?
And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
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
The hare bears one sign of the clean animal and lacks the other, so the verse makes cleanness a complete pair rather than a single resemblance.
THE MEANING
The hare brings up cud, yet its hoof does not divide; under the verse’s stated measure, that one sign does not make it clean for you. Cleanness here rests on both marks together, so the missing division still matters.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A single matching trait is enough to meet the verse’s standard of cleanness.
THE ROOT
הִפְרִיסָה
hifrîsāh
GROWS FROM
פרס
To split or break apart; by extension, to divide out or distribute.
The Hebrew calls the hoof a parsah, then says it did not hifrisa: the hoof and its failure to split echo the same root. That root also describes breaking out bread to share, so “divideth” carries a connection between a split hoof and portions distributed.
ALSO GROWS
parsah: Hoof, especially a split hoof.
פַּרְסָה
The noun for the hoof echoes the verb for splitting it, tying the animal’s body and the required mark together.
paras: Break out or distribute; used of dealing bread to the hungry.
פָּרַס
The root’s sense of division also applies to bread portioned out, linking the hoof’s split with division into shares.
מַעֲלַת גֵּרָה
maʿălat gerah
GROWS FROM
עלה
To rise, go up, or bring up.
The Hebrew phrase describes bringing the cud up, the motion behind the English “cheweth the cud.” Its root also appears in words for rising, so the first sign is phrased as an upward return, paired with a hoof that does not divide.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: Rise or go up.
עָלָה
This verb gives the cud phrase its image of bringing something upward.
ʿolah: Burnt offering, traditionally understood as an offering that rises.
עֹלָה
The related word preserves the root’s upward motion, echoing the “bringing up” named in the animal’s first sign.
THE PATTERN
A category becomes clear through its paired distinctions: one matching trait cannot stand in for the other.
Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.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.And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.THE THREAD
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?The word behind “deal” is פָּרַס (paras), meaning to break out or distribute, the same root behind הִפְרִיסָה (hifrîsāh, “divideth”) here and the hoof noun פַּרְסָה (parsah). One verse uses the root for a hoof’s division; the other uses it for bread portioned out to the hungry.
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