THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
10:14. The breast also that is offered, and the shoulder that is separated, you shall eat in a most clean place, thou and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee. For they are set aside for thee and thy children, of the victims of peace offerings of the children of Israel.
10:15. Because they have elevated before the Lord the shoulder and the breast, and the fat that is burnt on the altar: and they belong to thee and to thy sons by a perpetual law, as the Lord hath commanded.
10:16. While these things were a doing, when Moses sought for the buck goat, that had been offered for sin, he found it burnt. And being angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron that were left, he said:
10:17. Why did you not eat in the holy place the sacrifice for sin, which is most holy, and given to you, that you may bear the iniquity of the people, and may pray for them in the sight of the Lord.
10:18. Especially, whereas none of the blood thereof hath been carried within the holy places: and you ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary, as was commanded me?
10:19. Aaron answered: This day hath been offered the victim for sin, and the holocaust before the Lord: and to me what thou seest has happened. How could I eat it, or please the Lord in the ceremonies, having a sorrowful heart?
10:20. Which when Moses had heard he was satisfied.
Leviticus Chapter 11
The distinction of clean and unclean animals.
11:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
11:2. Say to the children of Israel: These are the animals which you are to eat of all the living things of the earth.
Animals which you are to eat, etc... The prohibition of so many kinds of beasts, birds, and fishes, in the law, was ordered, 1st, to exercise the people in obedience, and temperance; 2ndly, to restrain them from the vices of which these animals were symbols; 3rdly, because the things here forbidden were for the most part unwholesome, and not proper to be eaten; 4thly, that the people of God, by being obliged to abstain from things corporally unclean, might be trained up to seek a spiritual cleanness.
11:3. Whatsoever hath the hoof divided, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, you shall eat.
Hoof divided, and cheweth the cud... The dividing of the hoof and chewing of the cud, signify discretion between good and evil, and meditating on the law of God; and where either of these is wanting a man is unclean. In like manner fishes were reputed unclean that had not fins and scales: that is, souls that did not raise themselves up by prayer and cover themselves with the scales of virtue.
11:4. But whatsoever cheweth indeed the cud, and hath a hoof, but divideth it not, as the camel, and others: that you shall not eat, but shall reckon it among the unclean.
11:5. The cherogrillus which cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof, is unclean.
The cherogrillus... Some suppose it to be the rabbit, others the hedgehog. St. Jerome intimates that it is another kind of animal common in Palestine, which lives in the holes of rocks or in the earth. We choose here, as also in the names of several other creatures that follow (which are little known in this part of the world,) to keep the Greek or Latin names.
11:6. The hare also: for that too cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof.
11:7. And the swine, which, though it divideth the hoof, cheweth not the cud.
11:8. The flesh of these you shall not eat, nor shall you touch their carcasses, because they are unclean to you.
11:9. These are the things that breed in the waters, and which it is lawful to eat. All that hath fins, and scales, as well in the sea, as in the rivers, and the pools, you shall eat.
11:10. But whatsoever hath not fins and scales, of those things that move and live in the waters, shall be an abomination to you,
11:11. And detestable. Their flesh you shall not eat: and their carcasses you shall avoid.
11:12. All that have not fins and scales, in the waters, shall be unclean.
11:13. Of birds these are they which you must not eat, and which are to be avoided by you: The eagle, and the griffon, and the osprey.
The griffon... Not the monster which the painter represent, which hath no being upon earth; but a bird of the eagle kind, larger than the common.
11:14. And the kite, and the vulture, according to their kind.
11:15. And all that is of the raven kind, according to their likeness.
11:16. The ostrich, and the owl, and the larus, and the hawk according to its kind.
11:17. The screech owl, and the cormorant, and the ibis.
11:18. And the swan, and the bittern, and the porphyrion.
11:19. The heron, and the charadroin according to its kind, the houp also, and the bat.
11:20. Of things that fly, whatsoever goeth upon four feet, shall be abominable to you.
11:21. But whatsoever walketh upon four feet, but hath the legs behind longer, wherewith it hoppeth upon the earth,
11:22. That you shall eat: as the bruchus in its kind, the attacus, and ophimachus, and the locust, every, one according to their kind.
11:23. But of flying things whatsoever hath four feet only, shall be an abomination to you.
11:24. And whosoever shall touch the carcasses of them, shall be defiled: and shall be unclean until the evening:
11:25. And if it be necessary that he carry any of these things when they are dead: he shall wash his clothes, and shall be unclean until the sun set.
11:26. Every beast that hath a hoof, but divideth it not, nor cheweth the cud shall be unclean: and he that toucheth it, shall be defiled.
11:27. That which walketh upon hands of all animals which go on all four, shall be unclean: he that shall touch their carcasses shall be defiled until evening.