Deuteronomy 14:9

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales may you eat;

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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סְנַפִּ֥יר

çᵉnappîyr

H5579

“fin”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 5× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Leviticus 11:9

Full BDB Definition

Origin: of uncertain derivation

TWOT: 1523

fin

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

12: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is סְנַפִּ֥יר fin H5579 — appearing just 5 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

סְנַפִּ֥יר fin H5579 occurs in 5 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns
1 pronoun
1 preposition
3 particles

Verb forms

תֹּֽאכְל֔וּ Qal · Imperfect
תֹּאכֵֽלוּ Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

תֹּֽאכְל֔וּ to eat H398 ×2
מִכֹּ֖ל all H3605 ×2
אֲשֶׁ֣ר which H834 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 19 words from the Hebrew and 21 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 12 Hebrew tokens and 18 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 14:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Leviticus 11:9–12 These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, that you may eat.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 14:9 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אֶת זֶה֙ תֹּֽאכְל֔וּ מִכֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּמָּ֑יִם כֹּ֧ל אֲשֶׁר ל֛וֹ סְנַפִּ֥יר וְקַשְׂקֶ֖שֶׂת תֹּאכֵֽלוּ

These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales may you eat;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 14:9 Septuagint · lemma form

καί οὗτος ἐσθίω ἀπό πᾶς ὁ ἐν ὁ ὕδωρ πᾶς ὅσος εἰμί ἐν αὐτός πτερυγίον καί λεπίς ἐσθίω

And these you⌃ shall eat of all that are in the water, you⌃ shall eat all that have fins and scales.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

יָת דֵין תֵּיכְלוּן מִכֹּל דִי בְמַיָא כֹּל דִי לֵהּ צִיצִין וְקַלְפִין תֵּיכְלוּן

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

לְחוֹד יַת דֵּין תֵּיכְלוּן מִן כָּל דִּבְמַיָא כָּל דִּילֵיהּ צִיצִין לְמִפְרַח וְחַרְסְפִיתִין עַל מוּשְׁכֵיהּ וְאִין נַתְרוֹן וְאִשְׁתְּיֵיר חַד תְּחוֹת לִיסָתֵיהּ וְחַד תְּחוֹת צִיצִיתֵיהּ וְחַד תְּחוֹת גּוֹנְבֵיהּ יָתֵיהּ תֵּיכְלוּן

But this you may eat, of all that are in the waters, whatever hath fins to move, as by flying, and scales upon its skin; and though (some of which) may fall away, yet if there remain on under its jaw, another under its fin, and another under its tail, that you may eat.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 14:9 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9-10) See Lev_11:9-12.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

9, 10. On clean and unclean Fishes; Lev_11:9-12 substantially the same but more elaborate. On the numerous fishes of Palestine see Tristram, 162 ff. No species are here enumerated, nor in the rest of the O.T.; but, chiefly under foreign influence, specific names appear in the Talmud and Mishna. On their use as food see Kennedy in E.B. and the present writer’s Jerusalem, i. 317 f. The rule given here, that only those with fins (points) or scales are clean practically rules out eels1[133], lampreys and others, with of course all shellfish, some of which are wholesome fare. In inquiring for a reason for their exclusion, their likeness in shape to serpents must be kept in view; on the sacredness of fish (including eels) to certain Semitic deities see W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem. 157 ff. In Arabia the practice varies. Fish are eaten in Madaba and Kerak and on the coasts of the peninsula; but inland Arabs though eating lizards and locusts appear to abhor fish: ‘the most have never seen them and do not desire them’ (Musil, Ethn. Ber. 21). The true Bedawee despises the fish-eater (Georg Jacob, op. cit. 25). Cp. Baldensperger, PEFQ, 1905, 119.

[133] Eels have indeed numerous small scales.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

But these are they of which they shall not eat,.... Jarchi observes, that the unclean birds are particularly mentioned, to teach that the clean sort are more than the unclean, and therefore the particulars of the fewest are given: these are all the same names as in Lev 11:13, excepting one, "the glede", Deu 14:13 which is a kind of kite or puttock; the Jerusalem Targum renders it the vulture, and the Targum of Jonathan the white "dayetha" or vulture; and Aristotle says (q) there are two sorts of vultures, the one small and whiter, the other larger and of many forms or colours; in Hebrew its name here is "raah", and is thought to be the same with "daah" in Lev 11:14 there translated the "vulture", which has its name there from flying, and here from seeing, for which it is remarkable; see Job 28:7 and the letters and are pretty much alike, and are sometimes changed, but there is another here, in Deu 14:13 mentioned, the "dayah", which is not mentioned in Lev 11:1, though some think it the same with the "ayah", rendered both here and there the "kite"; perhaps it means another sort of vulture, the black vulture, as the Targum of Jonathan.

(q) Hist. Animal. l. 8. c. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

9. Nearly the same as in Lev_11:9.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel.

Of these things that are in water you may eat

"You may eat these kinds of animals that live in the water"

fins

the thin, flat part which the fish uses to move through the water

scales

the small plates that cover the body of the fish

they are unclean to you

Something Yahweh says is unfit for his people to eat is spoken of as if it were physically unclean. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

water

clean

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 12 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is çᵉnappîyr (“fin”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “fin” (çᵉnappîyr) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Leviticus 11:9, which shares the word «fin», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “to eat” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«תֹּֽאכְל֔וּ» is a Qal Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 12 Hebrew ↔ 18 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
“to eat” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 12 words in this verse.