Leviticus 11:3

Summary

The verse establishes the criteria for animals permitted as food: an animal must have a hoof that is completely divided and must chew the cud. Both conditions are expressed through participial descriptions of the animal's physical form and its digestive behavior.

Key words

• maf.Re.set ("[one which] divides in two", H6536) — hiphil participle, feminine singular, describing an ongoing characteristic of the animal (causing the hoof to be split) rather than a completed action.
• par.Sah ("a hoof", H6541) — feminine singular noun, the object of the dividing action, naming the specific body part in question.
• sho.Sa.'at ("[which] cleaves", H8156) — qal participle, feminine singular, a second descriptive term paired with the first by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), reinforcing the hoof-division criterion.
• she.sa' ("a cleft of", H8157) — construct noun linking to pe.ra.Sot ("hooves", H6541), forming the phrase "a cleft of hooves," which specifies the type of division required.
• ma.'a.Lat ("[which] brings up", H5927M) — hiphil participle in construct form, governing ge.Rah ("cud", H1625), describing the second required trait: bringing up cud.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure lists two participial clauses describing the required traits of an edible animal, both grammatically dependent on the initial kol ("any", H3605): first, maf.Re.set par.Sah ("[one] dividing a hoof") combined with ve.sho.Sa.'at she.sa' pe.ra.Sot ("and cleaving a cleft of hooves"), and second, ma.'a.Lat ge.Rah ("bringing up cud"). The repetition of hoof-related vocabulary (par.Sah, she.sa', pe.ra.Sot) — using three different Hebrew roots for a similar physical feature — creates emphasis on the hoof-division as a distinct, layered criterion, which single-term translations cannot fully preserve.

The verse concludes with ba.be.he.Mah ("among the animal[s]", H0929), setting the domain of the criteria (livestock/animals), followed by the direct object marker 'o.Tah ("it", H0853+H9034) referring back to the animal described, and the main verb to.Khe.lu ("you will eat", H0398), a qal imperfect second-person plural form indicating an ongoing or repeatable future permission rather than a single act.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew's two-part hoof description (maf.Re.set par.Sah + sho.Sa.'at she.sa' pe.ra.Sot) as διχηλοῦν ὁπλὴν καὶ ὀνυχιστῆρας δύο χηλῶν ("dividing the hoof and two claws of hooves"), introducing the numeral "two" and the term "claws" not present in the Hebrew wording. The Vulgate compresses the Hebrew's repeated hoof-terminology into a single phrase, "habet divisam ungulam" ("has a divided hoof"), omitting the second Hebrew clause (sho.Sa.'at she.sa' pe.ra.Sot) as a separate element and merging it with the cud-chewing condition using "et ruminat" ("and chews the cud").