Deuteronomy 14:9

Summary

Deuteronomy 14:9 gives a rule for identifying edible water creatures within the dietary regulations of chapter 14. It states that anything living in water which has both senappir ("fin", H5579) and qasqeset ("scale", H7193) may be eaten.

Key words

• to.khe.Lu ("you will eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, appears twice, framing the verse as an instruction addressed to a collective "you all," with future/ongoing nuance rather than a single command.
• zeh ("this", H2088) — demonstrative particle marking out the class of animals about to be specified, pointing forward to the criterion given later in the verse.
• kol ("all", H3605) — masculine singular noun used twice (once with mi "from," once alone), each time introducing a comprehensive category: first "all that is in the water," then "all that has fin and scale."
• 'a.Sher ("that/who", H0834A) — relative particle used twice, each time linking a noun ("water," "it") to a following description, forming the two relative clauses that define the category of animals.
• ba.Ma.yim ("in the water", H9003+H4325G) — preposition plus article attached to "water," localizing the first kol clause to aquatic creatures generally, before the second kol clause narrows this by the fin-and-scale criterion.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built in two parallel movements, each ending in the same verb to.khe.Lu ("you will eat"). The first movement opens with 'et-zeh ("this") as the object marked directly by the object marker 'et (H0853, left untranslated), followed by the verb, then narrowed by mi.kol 'a.sher ba.ma.yim ("from all that is in the water") — establishing the general domain: aquatic creatures. The second movement repeats kol ("all") but shifts the relative clause to a physical criterion: 'a.sher-lo senappir ve-qasqeset ("that to-it [belongs] fin and scale"), literally "that has for itself a fin and a scale," using the preposition-plus-suffix construction lo ("to it/his") — H9005+H9033 — to express possession. This is a common way in Biblical Hebrew to indicate an attribute belonging to a subject, without a verb "to have."

The repetition of kol ("all") and the double appearance of the same imperfect verb form gives the verse a structured, almost list-like rhythm: first defining the broad set (creatures in water), then applying the diagnostic feature (fin and scale) as the criterion for inclusion in what may be eaten. The singular nouns senappir ("fin") and qasqeset ("scale") are used generically, referring to the presence of the feature as a category marker rather than counting individual fins or scales.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verse with two second-person plural future verbs φάγεσθε ("you will eat"), matching the Hebrew's double to.khe.Lu, and uses πτερύγια ("fins") and λεπίδες ("scales") for senappir and qasqeset. The Vulgate similarly repeats "comedetis... comedite," preserving the two-part structure, and renders the water clause as "quae morantur in aquis" ("that dwell in the waters"), adding the verb "morantur" ("dwell") not explicitly present in the Hebrew's ba.Ma.yim ("in the water"), which lacks a verb of dwelling.