What Does Leviticus 11:5 Mean?

And the rock badger, which brings up the cud but does not split the hoof, is unclean to you.

Leviticus 11:5 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

THE KEY

The coney shows one sign, but without the split hoof the paired pattern remains incomplete.

THE MEANING

The verse gives two signs of a permitted animal, and the coney displays only one: cud is brought up, but the hoof is not split. That missing sign keeps its classification unchanged: it is unclean for you. The whole pattern matters, not one resemblance on its own.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

One matching sign is enough to qualify an animal as clean.

THE ROOT

יַפְרִיס

yaphris

GROWS FROM

פ־ר־ס

p-r-s

to split or divide

“divideth” in this verse is yaphris. The same consonants appear in the verb for splitting and in the word for hoof. The verse makes the missing split decisive: bringing up cud alone does not complete the paired sign.

ALSO GROWS

paras: to split or divide

פָּרַס

This is the root action named by “divideth.”

parsah: hoof

פַּרְסָה

The word for the hoof shares the root’s consonants, tying the animal’s foot directly to the required split.

מַעֲלֵה גֵרָה

ma'aleh gerah

GROWS FROM

ע־ל־ה

ʿ-l-h

to go up, rise, or bring up

“brings up the cud” in this verse is ma'aleh gerah. The Hebrew phrase pictures the cud being brought up; the English phrase “cheweth the cud” can hide that upward motion. It is one sign in the verse’s pair, alongside the divided hoof.

ALSO GROWS

alah: to go up or ascend

עָלָה

This verb carries the same upward movement as “brings up.”

olah: an offering that ascends

עֹלָה

This noun shares the root of ascent, showing how the same seed can describe something that goes up.

טָמֵא

tamei

GROWS FROM

ט־מ־א

ṭ-m-ʾ

to be unclean

“unclean” in this verse is tamei. Here the word assigns the coney a category in the food distinction the verse describes; it does not accuse the animal of wrongdoing. Its status follows from the signs named in the passage.

ALSO GROWS

tum'ah: uncleanness

טֻמְאָה

This noun names the condition expressed by “unclean.”

timme: to make unclean or defile

טִמֵּא

This related form describes bringing something into that condition.

THE PATTERN

A category is recognized by the pattern of signs it bears, not by one isolated resemblance.

Whatever splits the hoof and is cleft through, and brings up the cud among the beasts, that you may eat.

Leviticus 11:3 · SDVThe verse names the paired signs together as the pattern for an animal that may be eaten.

And every beast that splits the hoof and is cleft through in two, and brings up the cud among the beasts, you shall eat.

Deuteronomy 14:6 · SDVThe same classification depends on both the divided hoof and the cud, rather than either sign alone.

You will know them by their fruits. Do people gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?

Matthew 7:16 · SDVThe fruit is the observable evidence by which the kind of tree is recognized, echoing the verse’s attention to a pattern of signs.

THE THREAD

Whatever splits the hoof and is cleft through, and brings up the cud among the beasts, that you may eat.

Leviticus 11:3 · SDV

This verse uses the same paired wording: cud is brought up, and the hoof is split. Leviticus 11:3 states both signs together; Leviticus 11:5 repeats the pattern with the split-hoof sign absent, making clear why the one sign does not change the classification.

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