Leviticus 11
← All chapters

Fins, Scales, and a Split Hoof

The food laws, and they are stated as a test rather than a list: a land animal must both part the hoof and chew the cud, and water creatures must have fins and scales. The chapter then works through the near-misses by name — the camel, the coney and the hare chew but do not part; the pig parts but does not chew. It gives the pig one verse and the same formula as the others; its later status as the forbidden food comes from the Maccabean crisis, not from here. And the chapter offers no reason for any of it except the one at the end: be holy, for I am holy. The archaeology is unusually good and unusually awkward — pig bones are absent from Iron Age highland sites and abundant at Philistine cities, but they also turn up in the northern Kingdom of Israel and not in Judah.

📍 Places
א Word Studies
↔ Cross-References
△ Objects
7 Numbers
📜 Dead Sea Scrolls
☽ Quran
≈ ANE Parallels
♀ Women
Tap any underlined phrase for its notes. Use edge arrows to flip chapters.
📜 Dead Sea Scrolls
☽ In the Quran

Scripture text: KJV (1611) · WEB (2020) · ASV (1901) · YLT (1862) — public domain in the United States.

Archaeology summaries written from cited sources. See About & Method.

Privacy · Terms

© 2026 TELL. All rights reserved.

Text Size
100%
Font
Verse numbers
Wider line spacing