Leviticus 11:9

אֶת־זֶה תֹּֽאכְלוּ מִכֹּל אֲשֶׁר בַּמָּיִם כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ סְנַפִּיר וְקַשְׂקֶשֶׂת בַּמַּיִם בַּיַּמִּים וּבַנְּחָלִים אֹתָם תֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

אֶת־זֶה֙ תֹּֽאכְל֔וּ מִכֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּמָּ֑יִם כֹּ֣ל אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ֩ סְנַפִּ֨יר וְקַשְׂקֶ֜שֶׂת בַּמַּ֗יִם בַּיַּמִּ֛ים וּבַנְּחָלִ֖ים אֹתָ֥ם תֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Καὶ ταῦτα ἃ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν· πάντα ὅσα ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς πτερύγια καὶ λεπίδες ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν καὶ ἐν ταῖς θαλάσσαις καὶ ἐν τοῖς χειμάρροις, ταῦτα φάγεσθε.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Hæc sunt quæ gignuntur in aquis, et vesci licitum est: omne quod habet pinnulas et squamas, tam in mari quam in fluminibus et stagnis, comedetis.

Spanish

“‘De todas las criaturas que viven en el agua, en los mares y en los ríos, podrán comer todas las que tengan aletas y escamas.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Esto comeréis de todas las cosas que están en las aguas: todas las cosas que tienen aletas y escamas en las aguas de la mar, y en los ríos, aquellas comeréis;

English

Of all the creatures that live in the water, whether in the seas or in the streams, you may eat anything with fins and scales.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Leviticus 11:9 specifies which water creatures may be eaten: those possessing both fins and scales, whether found in seas or in wadis/rivers. The verse frames permission through a double statement of the criterion, first introducing it and then repeating the command to eat.

Key words

to.khe.Lu ("you will eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, appears twice (positions 3 and 25), framing the whole verse as an inclusio around the defining criteria.
se.na.Pir ("fin", H5579) — masculine singular noun, one of the two anatomical markers required for permissibility.
kas.Ke.set ("scale", H7193) — feminine singular noun, paired with senapir via the conjunction ve ("and", H9002); both features must be present together.
ne.cha.Lim ("wadis", H5158A) — masculine plural noun, distinguishing seasonal/river watercourses from yammim ("seas", H3220G), broadening the geographic scope of water bodies covered.
'a.Sher ("that/who", H0834A) — relative particle used twice (positions 6 and 10) to introduce two successive defining clauses: first "that is in the waters," then "that has fin and scale."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure builds through layered relative clauses. It opens with 'et-zeh to.khe.Lu ("this you will eat"), establishing a general category, then narrows it with mi-kol 'asher ba-mayim ("from all that is in the waters"). A second kol 'asher clause specifies the criterion: lo senapir ve-qasqeset ("to it [belongs] fin and scale"), using the preposition le with pronominal suffix to express possession — literally "that which has to it fin and scale," a common Hebrew possessive construction rather than a verb "to have."

The list of water bodies — ba-mayim ("in the waters", H4325G), ba-yammim ("in the seas", H3220G), va-nechalim ("in the wadis", H5158A) — moves from a general term to two specific categories, seas and wadis, joined by conjunctions. The final clause 'otam to.khe.lu ("them you will eat") repeats the verb 'akhal ("to eat", H0398) from the verse's opening, closing the statement with the same imperfect plural form, creating a structural frame around the fin-and-scale criterion.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the possessive construction 'asher-lo senapir ve-qasqeset with a dative construction (πάντα ὅσα ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς πτερύγια καὶ λεπίδες, "all as many as have to them fins and scales"), preserving the possessive sense similarly to the Hebrew. The Vulgate uses habet ("has") explicitly — "omne quod habet pinnulas et squamas" — introducing a verb of possession not morphologically present in the Hebrew, which relies on the preposition le + suffix alone. The Vulgate also adds stagnis ("ponds/pools") alongside mari and fluminibus, an expansion beyond the two Hebrew terms yammim and nechalim.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.