49 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the stork,..... A bird of passage, Jeremiah 8:7 it has its name from kindness, which it exercises both to its dam, and to its young. Various writers (b) speak of the kindness of these birds to their dams, which when they are old they take care of and feed them, to which the apostle is thought to allude, 1 Timothy 5:4 and its tenderness to its...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
All fowls that creep,.... Or rather "every creeping thing that flies"; for what are designed are not properly fowls, but, as the Jewish writers interpret them, flies, fleas, bees, wasps, hornets, locusts, c. so the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, Ben Gersom, and Maimonides (y): going upon [all] four that is, upon their four feet, when they walk or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yet these may ye eat,.... Which are after described and named: of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon [all] four; even though it is a creeping thing that flies and goes upon four feet, provided they be such, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; there is a double reading of this clause; the textual reading is,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Even] these of them ye may eat, c] The four following ones, which seem to be no other than four sorts of locusts: the locust after his kind this is the common locust, called by the name of Arbeh, from the great multiplication and vast multitudes of them; the phrase, "after his kind", and which also is used in all the following instances,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But all [other] flying creeping things,.... Excepting the four sorts before mentioned, wherefore we rightly supply the word "other": which have four feet; or more; the Vulgate Latin version adds, "only", but wrongly; for those that have more are unclean, and forbidden to be eaten, excepting those in the preceding verse; and most creeping things...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And for these ye shalt be unclean,.... That is, for eating them; or should they eat them they would be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcass of them shall be unclean until the even; not only he was unclean that ate them, but he that even touched their dead bodies was reckoned unclean; might not go into the tabernacle, nor have conversation with...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And whosoever beareth [ought] of the carcass of them,.... That carries them from one place to another, out of the camp, city, village, or house or field where they may lie; and though this is done with a good design, as being offensive or infectious, yet such an one shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even; from whence both Jarchi and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[The carcasses] of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not cloven footed,.... As the camel: nor cheweth the cud; though it may divide the hoof, as the swine; and on the other hand, such as may chew the cud, and yet not dividing the hoof, as the coney and hare; for the Scripture here, as Aben Ezra observes again, uses a short and concise...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Whatsoever goeth upon his paws,.... Or "the palms" (d) of his hands; meaning such creatures, whose feet are not divided into two parts, but into many, like the fingers of an hand, as apes, lions, bears, wolves, foxes, dogs, cats, c. among all manner of beasts that go on [all] four this is added, to distinguish them from fowl, such as are clean;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he that beareth the carcass of them,.... Carries it upon any account, from place to place: shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even; as he that bore the carcasses of any of the flying creeping things, Leviticus 11:25 they are unclean to you; even the carcasses of the one and of the other; and to all the Israelites, men, women, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
These also [shall be] unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth,.... As distinguished from those creeping things that fly, these having no wings as they; and which were equally unclean, neither to be eaten nor touched, neither their blood, their skin, nor their flesh, as the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it: and the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the ferret,.... Whatever creature is here meant, it has its name in Hebrew from the cry it makes; and so the ferret has but one note in its voice, which is a shrill, but small, whining cry: it is used to drive rabbits out of their holes: the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render the word by "mygale", the weasel mouse, or "mus areneus"...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
These are unclean to you of all that creep,.... Unfit for food, and not to be touched, at least when dead, as in the next clause, that is, these eight sorts of creeping things before mentioned, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it, and these only, as Maimonides says (r): whosoever doth touch them when they are dead shall be unclean until the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And upon whatsoever [any] of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean,.... Any of the above eight creeping things, that is, of their flesh, for as for their bones, nails, nerves, and skin, as before observed, being separated from them and dry, they do not defile: whether [it be] any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And every earthen vessel, whereinto [any] of them falleth,.... Any of the above eight reptiles, should they by chance fall into the midst an earthen vessel: whatsoever [is] in it shall be unclean; if it only by falling touched the outside of it, it was not unclean; but if it fell into it, then whatever was contained in it was unclean; for, as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Of all meat which may be eaten,.... Which otherwise is lawful to eat and fit for food, whether herbs, or whether the flesh of clean creatures: [that] on which [such] water cometh shall be unclean; that is, such water as is put into an unclean vessel, become so by the fall of any unclean reptile into it; wherefore such water poured out upon any...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And everything whereupon [any part] of their carcass falleth shall be unclean,.... Before the Scripture seems to speak of anyone of the reptiles perfect, that falling upon anything should pollute it; but here of any part of them, though ever so small, which should, through any accident, fall and light upon anything, even that would render it...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Nevertheless, a fountain or pit, [wherein there is] plenty of water,.... Or, "a fountain or pit, a collection of waters", the copulative being wanting, as some observe, Aben Ezra takes notice of; or it may be by way of apposition, and so may explain what fountain or pit is meant, even such an one where there is a large continence of water, into...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if [any part] of their carcass fall upon any sowing seed that is to be sown,.... That which is selected from the other seed in order to be sown, and which is laid by and laid up for that purpose; should the carcass, or any part of the carcass of a creeping thing fall upon an heap of it, into a vessel in which it was put, as a dead mouse or the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But if [any] water be put upon the seed,.... Either accidentally or on purpose; whether on sowing seed, and with water with which they water the field, as Aben Ezra interprets it; or on seed used for food, by steeping it in water, as sometimes wheat is, and boiled; and whether it is water or the rest of the liquors, and whether they are put on the...