Leviticus 11 · Verse 3

Leviticus 11:3

Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

Leviticus 11:3, King James Version

Leviticus 11:3 in other translations

BSB	You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.
WEB	Whatever parts the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and chews the cud among the animals, that you may eat.
ASV	Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that may ye eat.
YLT	any dividing a hoof, and cleaving the cleft of the hoofs, bringing up the cud, among the beasts, it ye do eat.
DARBY	Whatever hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts — that shall ye eat.
BBE	You may have as food any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot, and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again.
Webster	Whatever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

What does Leviticus 11:3 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 11:3-7

3-7. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud--Ruminating animals by the peculiar structure of their stomachs digest their food more fully than others. It is found that in the act of chewing the cud, a large portion of the poisonous properties of noxious plants eaten by them, passes off by the salivary glands. This power of secreting the poisonous effects of vegetables, is said to be particularly remarkable in cows and goats, whose mouths are often sore, and sometimes bleed, in consequence. Their flesh is therefore in a better state for food, as it contains more of the nutritious juices, is more easily digested in the human stomach, and is consequently more easily assimilated. Animals which do not chew the cud, convert their food less perfectly; their flesh is therefore unwholesome, from the gross animal juices with which they abound, and is apt to produce scorbutic and scrofulous disorders. But the animals that may be eaten are those which "part the hoof as well as chew the cud," and this is another means of freeing the flesh of the animal from noxious substances. "In the case of animals with parted hoofs, when feeding in unfavorable situations a prodigious amount of foetid matter is discharged, and passes off between the toes; while animals with undivided hoofs, feeding on the same ground, become severely affected in the legs, from the poisonous plants among the pasture" [Whitlaw, Code of Health]. All experience attests this, and accordingly the use of ruminating animals (that is, those which both chew the cud and part the hoof) has always obtained in most countries though it was observed most carefully by the people who were favored with the promulgation of God's law.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 3 Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed - These two words mean the same thing - a divided hoof, such as that of the ox, where the hoof is divided into two toes, and each toe is cased with horn. Cheweth the cud - Ruminates; casts up the grass, etc., which had been taken into the stomach for the purpose of mastication. Animals which chew the cud, or ruminate, are provided with two, three or four stomachs. The ox has four: in the first or largest, called the ventriculus or paunch, the food is collected without being masticated, the grass, etc., being received into it as the beast crops it from the earth. The food, by the force of the muscular coats of this stomach, and the liquors poured in, is sufficiently macerated; after which, formed into small balls, it is thrown up by the esophagus into the mouth, where it is made very small by mastication or chewing, and then sent down into the second stomach, into which the esophagus or gullet opens, as well as into the first, ending exactly where the two stomachs meet. This is what is termed chewing the cud. The second stomach, which is called the reticulum, honeycomb, bonnet, or king's hood, has a great number of small shallow cells on its inward surface, of a pentagonal or five-sided form, exactly like the cells in a honey-comb; in this the food is farther macerated, and then pushed onward into the third stomach, called the omasum or many-plies, because its inward surface is covered with a great number of thin membranous partitions. From this the food passes into the fourth stomach, called the abomasum, or rede. In this stomach it is digested, and from the digested mass the chyle is formed, which, being absorbed by the lacteal vessels, is afterwards thrown into the mass of blood, and becomes the principle of nutrition to all the solids and fluids of the body. The intention of rumination, or chewing the cud, seems to be, that the food may be sufficiently comminuted, that, being more fully acted on by the stomachs, it may afford the greatest possible portion of nutritive juices. The word cud is probably not originally Saxon, though found in that language in the same signification in which it is still used. Junius, with great show of probability, derives it from the Cambro-British chwyd, a vomit, as it is the ball of food vomited, or thrown up, from the first stomach or paunch through the esophagus into the mouth, which is called by this name. Those who prefer a Saxon derivation may have it in the verb whence our word chew; and so cud might be considered a contraction of chewed, but this is not so likely as the preceding.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Leviticus 11:3 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

כֹּ֣ל\׀kolanyH3605

מַפְרֶ֣סֶתmaf.Re.set[one which] divides in twoH6536

פַּרְסָ֗הpar.Saha hoofH6541

וְשֹׁסַ֤עַתve.sho.Sa.'atand [which] cleavesH8156

שֶׁ֙סַע֙she.sa'a cleft ofH8157

פְּרָסֹ֔תpe.ra.SothoovesH6541

מַעֲלַ֥תma.'a.Lat[which] brings upH5927

גֵּרָ֖הge.RahcudH1625

בַּבְּהֵמָ֑הba.be.he.Mahamong the animal[s]H929

אֹתָ֖הּ'o.Tah<obj.> itH853

תֹּאכֵֽלוּ\׃to.Khe.luyou will eatH398

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Leviticus 11:3

Proverbs 2:10
When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
2 Corinthians 6:17
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
Acts 17:11
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Deuteronomy 16:3-8
Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee: But at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. …
Proverbs 9:6
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
1 Timothy 4:15
Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
Psalms 1:1-2
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

parteth.
Ps 1:1; Pr 9:6; 2Co 6:17
cheweth.
De 6:6,7; 16:3-8; Ps 1:2; Pr 2:1,2,10; Ac 17:11; 1Ti 4:15

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Leviticus 11:2
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.
Leviticus 11:3
Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.
Leviticus 11:4
Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

Read all of Leviticus 11

Leviticus 11:3 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	De entre los animales, todo el de pezuña, y que tiene las pezuñas hendidas, y que rumia, éste comeréis.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Vous mangerez, d’entre les bêtes qui ruminent, tout ce qui a l’ongle fendu et le pied complètement divisé.
German Elberfelder 1871	Alles was gespaltene Hufe, und zwar ganz gespaltene Hufe hat, und wiederkäut unter den Tieren, das sollt ihr essen.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	omne quod habet divisam ungulam, et ruminat in pecoribus, comedetis.