Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.
Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud. Ruminating animals, by the special structure of their stomachs, digest their food more fully than others. It is found that in the act of chewing the cud a large portion of the poisonous properties of noxious plants eaten by them passes off by the salivary glands. This power of secreting the poisonous effects of vegetables is said to be particularly remarkable in cows and goats, whose mouths are often sore, and sometimes bleed, in consequence. Their flesh is therefore in a better state for food, as it contains more of the nutritious juices, and is more easily digested in the human stomach, and is consequently more easily assimilates. Animals which do not chew the cud convert their food less perfectly: their flesh is therefore unwholesome, from the gross animal juices with which they abound, and is apt to produce scorbutic and scrofulous disorders.
But the animals that may be eaten are those which 'part the hoof as well as chew the cud;' and this is another means of freeing the flesh of the animal from noxious substances. 'In the case of animals with parted hoofs, when feeding in unfavourable situations, a prodigious amount of foetid matter is discharged, and passes off between the toes; while animals with undivided hoofs, feeding on the same ground, become severely affected in the legs, from the poisonous plants among the pasture' (Whitelaw's 'Code of Health'). All experience attests this, and accordingly the use of ruminating animals-that is, which both chew the cud and part the hoof-has always obtained in most countries, though it was observed most carefully by the people who were favoured with the promulgation of God's law.
Verse 4. The camel. It does to a certain extent divide the hoof, because the foot consists of two large parts, but the division is not complete-the toes rest upon an elastic pad, on which the animal goes. As a beast of burden, its flesh is tough; and an additional reason for its prohibition might be to keep the Israelites apart from the descendants of Ishmael.
Verse 5. The coney, х hashaapaan (H8227); Septuagint, ton dasupoda, dasupous].-a hairy-footed animal; not the rabbit, because it is not found in Arabia or Palestine, but the Hyrax Syriacus of naturalists-a little animal of the size and general shape of the rabbit, but differing from it in several essential features: it has no tail, singular long hairs bristling like thorns or quills among the fur on its back; its feet are bare, its nails flat and round, except those on each inner toe of the hind feet, which are sharp, and project like an awl. It does not burrow in the ground, but frequents the clefts of rocks. Scientific naturalists affirm that the hyrax is neither a rodent, like the hare and the rabbit, nor a ruminant, but it is anomalous, and most nearly allied to the great pachyderms of systematic zoology (Dr. Ainsworth). Although some writers continue to maintain the opinion that the jerboa is the beast referred to, there is no doubt that the Hyrax Syriacus of naturalists (the daman of the modern Syrians, the nabr of the Arabs, the askoko of the Abyssinians) does correspond to the Scriptural description of the coney better than any other animal.
Verse 6. The hare, х haa'arnebet (H768)]. Two species of hare must have been pointed at-the Sinai hare, the hare of the desert, small and generally brown; the other, the hare of Palestine and Syria, about the size and appearance of that known in our own country. Neither the hare nor the coney is really ruminant. They only appear to be so from working the jaws on the grasses they live on. 'In regard to both the shaphan and the hare, we should understand the original, rendered "chewing the cud," as implying merely a second mastication, more or less complete, and not necessarily that faculty of true ruminants which derives its name from a power to draw up aliment, after deglutition, when worked into a ball, from the first stomach into the mouth, and there to subject it to a grinding process. The act of "chewing the cud," and of "re-chewing," being considered identical by the Hebrews, the sacred lawgiver, not being occupied with the doctrines of science, no doubt used the expression in the popular sense in which it was then understood' (Ch. Hamilton Smith, Kitto's 'Cyclopaedia').
[The Vatican manuscript, published by Carafa in 1587, reads, 'the hare, because he does not chew the cud;' but in Cardinal Mai's 'Edition of the Vatican Codex,' 1857, the 'not' is omitted. Tischendorf's edition, published at Leipsic, 1850, of this Vatican Codex has in the text, hoti ouk anagei meerukismon touto, because it does not bring up this cud-chewing; and in his notes he gives, as a varied reading, hoti anagei, because it does bring up, etc. Moreover, the Septuagint uses, not lagos, the common word for hare, but a different one, koirogrullios, a little grunting pig, which some have taken to mean the hedgehog]. But the generality of Biblical writers understand arnebeth to be the hare. They are not cloven-footed; and, besides, it is said that, from the great quantity of down upon them, they are very much subject to vermin; that in order to expel these they eat poisonous plants, and if used as food while in that state, they are most deleterious (Whitelaw).
Verse 7. The swine. It is a filthy, foul-feeding animal, and it wants one of the natural provisions for purifying the system-`it cheweth not the cud.' In hot climates indulgence in swine's flesh is particularly liable to produce leprosy, scurvy, and various cutaneous eruptions. Nay, the progress of scientific observation and researches has made known other malignant disorders which result from the incautious use of swine's flesh.
Besides the tapeworm and the hydatid, two most destructive parasites which prey upon the human body, trichiniasis, a febrile disease is produced by the lodgment and migrations in the body of man of multitudes of a microscopic worm (trichina spiralis), which find their way into the economy through the eating of pork infested with this parasite, and pass in crowds from the intestines to the muscles, where they become encapsuled. In December, 1865, a fatal epidemic raged with great virulence in various parts of Germany, traceable to the infected persons having eaten of sausages (not thoroughly cooked) made of pork in which were trichinae. It is found that trichinae are not killed by salting or freezing the pork; nor is it settled whether smoking it kills them (Professor Owen, in 'Transactions of Zoological Society, London;' 'Lancet,' 1866; 'Popular Science Review,' Art. 'Diseased Pork and Microscopic Parasites in Man,' by Professor Gamgee). All these disorders are more frequent as well as more malignant in the warm countries of the East. Pork was therefore strictly avoided by the Israelites, and its prohibition was further necessary to prevent their adopting many of the grossest idolatries practiced by neighbouring nations.