Leviticus 11:13 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

These are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls— All rapacious birds, and such as live upon prey, are forbidden: and we read of no nations that have ever used them as food; for which, doubtless, the God of nature never designed them: accordingly Dr. James observes, that all these fowls are highly alkalescent, and therefore strongly inclined to putrefaction, both as they are birds of prey, and as their habitual exercise is great. It should be observed, that the animals in the eastern countries differing greatly from those of our climate, it is not to be expected that our knowledge of them should be perfect; especially when it depends chiefly upon the etymology of their names in Hebrew. It may be presumed, says Dr. Shaw, that every translator, for want of being acquainted with the animals peculiar to these eastern countries, would accommodate the Hebrew names, as well as he could, to those of his own; see Travels, p. 419. The Jews themselves acknowledge the signification of many of these names to be now lost, which should convince them of the absurdity of pretending still to adhere to the law of Moses; because, in many cases, they know not so much as what is forbidden, or what is not; and, agreeably to this, they had a tradition, that "in the days of the Messiah it should not be unlawful to eat swine's flesh:" the difference of meats then ceasing, one principal cause of that difference would then also cease. The ossifrage is a kind of eagle; so called from breaking the bones of its prey, which it does by carrying them up on high, and then letting them fall down upon a rock: the ospray is another kind of eagle, whose name in the Hebrew signifies strength, and is therefore thought by Bochart to express the black eagle; which Homer mentions as the strongest and swiftest of birds.