Deuteronomy 14:7

Summary

Deuteronomy 14:7 lists three animals — the camel, the hare, and the rock badger — that must not be eaten even though they chew the cud, because they lack the fully divided hoof required by the dietary rule stated in the preceding verse. The verse explains this exception with a causal clause (ki, "because") justifying their classification as unclean.

Key words

• 'akh ("nevertheless", H0389) — an adversative adverb opening the verse, marking a restriction on the general rule just given (animals that chew the cud AND have a split hoof).
• ma'alei geirah (from ma'aleh, H5927M) — hiphil participle, masculine plural construct, "those bringing up the cud"; used generically for the class of ruminants in the introductory clause (word 7).
• maprisei ha-parsah ha-shesu'ah (H6536 + H8156) — hiphil participle construct "those dividing" + passive participle "cloven", describing the fully split hoof; the qal passive participle shesu'ah stresses the hoof's completed state of being split.
• ki ("that/because", H3588A) — subordinating particle introducing the reason clause: these animals chew the cud but do not divide the hoof.
• temeim hem lakhem (H2931 + H1992 + H9036) — adjective "unclean" + pronoun "they" + prepositional suffix "to you/for you"; the phrase declares status ("unclean") applied specifically "to you" (the addressees), not an absolute statement about the animal itself.

What the text says

The verse opens with 'akh ("nevertheless", H0389), a particle that signals an exception to the rule given in verse 6, where animals with both a split hoof (parsah shesu'ah) and cud-chewing habit are permitted. Here the two participial phrases mi-ma'alei ha-geirah ("from those bringing up the cud") and mi-mafrisei ha-parsah ha-shesu'ah ("from those dividing the cloven hoof") are stated as general categories introduced by the preposition min ("from/any of", H9006), followed by direct object markers ('et, H0853, untranslated) naming the specific excluded animals: gamal ("camel", H1581), 'arnevet ("hare", H0768), and shafan ("rock badger", H8227A).

The causal clause beginning with ki ("because", H3588A) restates the criteria in singular participial form — ma'aleh gerah ("bringing up cud") — paired with the plural pronoun hemah ("they", H1992), and negates the hoof-division action using the perfect verb hifrisu ("they divided", H6536): "hoof they did not divide." The verse closes with teme'im hem lakhem ("unclean [are] they to you"), where the prepositional phrase lakhem ("to/for you", H9005+H9036) attaches the unclean status to the addressed community rather than stating it as an inherent universal property.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew names three animals: gamal ("camel"), 'arnevet ("hare"), and shafan ("rock badger"). The LXX renders these as κάμηλον ("camel"), δασύποδα ("hare"), and χοιρογρύλλιον (literally "little pig," used for a hyrax-like animal). The Vulgate gives camelum, leporem ("hare"), and chœrogryllum (a term sometimes understood as hedgehog). The RV1909 translates shafan as "conejo" ("rabbit") rather than "rock badger," diverging from the BSB and SBLIBRE, which render it "rock badger" — reflecting differing identifications of this animal across translation traditions.