What Does Leviticus 11:3 Mean?
Whatever splits the hoof and is cleft through, and brings up the cud among the beasts, that you may eat.
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
Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.THE KEY
The verse’s edible animal is marked by two movements at once: a split step below and food brought back up for another pass.
THE MEANING
The verse sets a concrete boundary around what enters as food: the hoof is split, and the cud is brought back up. The two signs belong together; having only one does not meet the stated mark.
THE ROOT
מַעֲלַת גֵּרָה
maʿălat gērāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
to go up, rise, ascend
“brings up the cud” in this verse is maʿălat gērāh. The Hebrew describes the animal as bringing up the cud: food returns upward for renewed chewing. The root עלה also names ascent, so the phrase carries a picture of return and upward movement that “cheweth” alone leaves less visible.
ALSO GROWS
ʿolah: burnt offering; an offering that goes up
עֹלָה
It shares the root’s upward movement, echoing the cud brought up in this verse.
maʿaleh: ascent, upward slope
מַעֲלֶה
This branch makes the root’s basic sense of going upward explicit.
THE PATTERN
The verse makes permission to eat depend on two observable marks appearing together.
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.And every beast that splits the hoof and is cleft through in two, and brings up the cud among the beasts, you shall eat.THE THREAD
Who climbs the mountain of the LORD? Who stands in his set-apart place?The verb “ascend” comes from עלה (ʿalah), the same root that describes the cud being brought up. English gives these movements different words; Hebrew keeps their shared upward motion audible.
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