What Does Leviticus 11:20 Mean?
All winged things that creep, walking upon all four, are a recoil to you.
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.
King James wording
King James Version
All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you.THE KEY
The phrase names a winged swarm whose actual gait stays on the ground.
THE MEANING
A wing does not erase this creature’s ground movement: the verse names a winged swarm walking on four and calls it detestable to you. Its way of moving is part of what it is, so the label follows the whole body rather than one striking feature.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that wings alone define a creature’s kind; its ground-walking movement matters too.
THE ROOT
שֶׁרֶץ
sherets
GROWS FROM
שׁרץ
To swarm, teem, or multiply.
The Hebrew names the creature by its swarming quality, then describes how it walks. English “creep” can hide that two-part picture: a winged swarm with a ground-bound gait.
ALSO GROWS
sharats: To swarm or teem.
שָׁרַץ
The verb shows that the creature’s name carries the sense of teeming life.
sherets: A swarming creature.
שֶׁרֶץ
This noun gives the creature its category before the verse describes its movement.
הֹלֵךְ
holekh
GROWS FROM
הלך
To walk or go.
The verse uses a word for walking to describe literal bodily movement. The creature is not defined by its wings alone; its way across the ground is part of the description.
ALSO GROWS
halikhah: Walking or a course of movement.
הֲלִיכָה
This noun keeps the root’s concrete sense of movement visible.
holekh: One who walks; walking.
הוֹלֵךְ
The participle describes what the creature is doing here: walking on four.
שֶׁקֶץ
sheqets
GROWS FROM
שׁקץ
To be detestable or abhorrent.
“a recoil” in this verse is sheqets. The verse applies a strong category to the creature; it does not merely describe an unusual shape. The word marks it as detestable to you.
ALSO GROWS
shaqats: To regard as detestable.
שָׁקַץ
The verb shows the force behind the label applied to the creature.
shiqquts: A detestable thing; an abomination.
שִׁקּוּץ
This related noun carries the same force of abhorrence.
THE PATTERN
Scripture marks creaturely categories by both kind and actual movement, not by one visible feature alone.
Yet these you may eat, of every winged swarming thing that walks upon all four, having legs above its feet to leap upon the earth.And every swarming thing that flies is unclean to you; they shall not be eaten.And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarming living soul, and let birds fly over the earth, upon the face of the expanse of the heavens."THE THREAD
And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarming living soul, and let birds fly over the earth, upon the face of the expanse of the heavens."The root שׁרץ (sharats, “swarm” or “teem”) links the noun שֶׁרֶץ (sherets, “swarming creature”) here with the abundant life in Genesis. The later boundary does not erase that creature’s place among the forms of life named at creation.
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