What Does Leviticus 11:7 Mean?
And the swine, though it splits the hoof and is cleft through, does not bring up the cud, and it is unclean 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
And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.THE KEY
The hoof’s split is emphatic, but it cannot stand in for the missing cud-chewing: the verse requires the whole pair of signs.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two facts together: the swine divides the hoof, yet does not chew the cud, so it is unclean to you. A visible sign is real without being sufficient; the classification rests on the whole pattern named here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The split hoof alone does not make the swine clean; one true sign cannot substitute for the missing one.
THE ROOT
מַפְרִיס פַּרְסָה
mafris parsah
GROWS FROM
פרס
p-r-s
to split or divide
“splits the hoof” in this verse is mafris parsah. The Hebrew uses this root in both the verb for dividing and the word for hoof. The split is prominent in the wording, yet the verse still adds a second required sign.
ALSO GROWS
mafris: dividing, splitting
מַפְרִיס
This participle names the visible action the hoof performs.
parsah: hoof
פַּרְסָה
This noun shares the split-root, echoing the division in the body part itself.
paras: to divide
פָּרַס
The root’s basic verb meaning makes the link between the action and the hoof clear.
שֹׁסֵעַ שֶׁסַע
shosea shesa
GROWS FROM
שסע
sh-s-ʿ
to split or cleave apart
“cleft through” in this verse is shosea shesa. The text names the split again with a second root: it first says the hoof is divided, then describes it as cleft. This doubled attention to the visible feature sits beside the absent cud-chewing, which still determines the classification.
ALSO GROWS
shosea: splitting, cleaving
שֹׁסֵעַ
This form describes the hoof’s split as an action or condition.
shesa: a split or cleft
שֶׁסַע
The related noun names the cleft itself, repeating the same root idea.
טָמֵא
tame
GROWS FROM
טמא
t-m-ʾ
to be unclean or ritually impure
“unclean” in this verse is tame. This root names the animal’s status after both signs are considered. The verse does not let the conspicuous split erase the missing cud-chewing.
ALSO GROWS
tame: unclean
טָמֵא
This is the status assigned to the swine in the verse.
tumah: uncleanness, impurity
טֻמְאָה
The related noun names the state carried by the same root.
THE PATTERN
A visible sign can be real without completing a judgment when the text names another condition alongside it.
Whatever splits the hoof and is cleft through, and brings up the cud among the beasts, that you may eat.And every beast that splits the hoof and is cleft through in two, and brings up the cud among the beasts, you shall eat.But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.THE THREAD
And the swine, because it splits the hoof, yet does not bring up the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their fallen body.The same roots for dividing, hoof, and cud-chewing recur in this parallel verse. Its added boundary about eating or touching makes the result concrete: the split remains true, but it does not cancel the absent second sign.
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