Leviticus 11:7

And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven footed,.... Not only its hoofs are parted, but cloven quite through, and so in this respect answers Moses's first descriptive character of

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.

The Jews would not so much as name the swine, but called it another or a strange thing, lest the naming of it should tempt them to eat this meat, which was so commonly used and so much esteemed by others.

Leviticus 11:7 And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he [is] unclean to you.Ver. 7. And the swine.] Anima sui data pro sale, ne carnes putrescant, said Cleanthes. The swine hath his soul for salt only; so hath the drunkard.

(7) And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted.—Better, And the swine, though he is clovenfooted, and entirely separateth the hoofs. (See Leviticus 11:3.) Having given these illustrations of animals which comply with the first condition only—i.e., which are ruminant but not bisulcous—and hence must not be eaten, the lawgiver now concludes the list of prohibited quadrupeds with an illustration of a contrary nature—viz., the swine, which comply with the second condition only, but not with the first. Here, too, the description is according to appearance. The feet of the pig tribe generally have four toes enclosed in separate hoofs. The two middle hoofs, however, are much larger, and are divided by a deep cleft, and hence to all appearances the swine is bisulcous. Though the law before us simply describes the swine as wanting in one of the two criteria, like the camel, the coney, and the hare, yet the abhorrence which the Jews, as a nation, have always had of this animal, and the impurity which they have ascribed to it infinitely surpass their repulsion of any other unclean beast. For this reason it became the symbol of defilement and the badge of insult (Psalms 65:4; Psalms 66:3; Psalms 66:17; Proverbs 11:22). The eating of pork was regarded as renouncing the Law, and as a sign of apostasy. Hence Antiochus Epiphanes adopted it as a test that those Jews who ate it had forsaken their religion and submitted to his rule. Hence we read that when swine’s flesh was forced into the mouth of Eleazar, the aged scribe, he “spit it forth, choosing rather to die gloriously than to live stained with such an abomination” (2Ma 6:18-19). During the time of the commonwealth there were no swine in Judea. Hence it was in a “far country” that the prodigal son was sent into the field to feed the swine (Luke 15:13-15). The swine in Galilee in our Lord’s time (Matthew 8:30) were undoubtedly kept by Gentiles for the Roman legion. The very name of swine (chazir) was discarded, and the animal was designated by the euphemistic expression, “the other thing.” This “brutish of all animals” was, moreover, regarded as propagating cutaneous and many other disorders. The Talmud declares that “ten measures of pestilential diseases were spread over the earth, and nine of them fell to the share of pigs.” On the other hand, many of the Pagan nations regarded the swine as an emblem of the productive power of nature. Hence they sacrificed them to those deities to whom they ascribed the fertility of the soil, and the fruitfulness of cattle. Thus, the Egyptians offered them in honour of Isis and Osiris once a year at the festival of the full moon. The Athenians, too, offered the swine in their mysteries; so did the Boetians and the early Romans.

Verse 7. And the swine] חזיר chazir, one of the most gluttonous, libidinous, and filthy quadrupeds in the universe; and, because of these qualities, sacred to the Venus of the Greeks and Romans, and the Friga of our Saxon ancestors; and perhaps on these accounts forbidden, as well as on account of its flesh being strong and difficult to digest, affording a very gross kind of aliment, apt to produce cutaneous, scorbutic, and scrofulous disorders, especially in hot climates.

7. The flesh of the pig is forbidden because it is not a ruminant. Of the four animals here mentioned, the swine was specially obnoxious to the Jews, either owing to its being an object of heathen worship (cp. Isaiah 65:4; Isaiah 66:3; Isaiah 66:17), or for sanitary reasons. To eat pork was by them regarded as abjuring their religion, and it is recorded as one of the abominations that were forced upon the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes in the Maccabaean persecution, 2Ma 6:18-19.

He divide the hoof ... - It is cloven-footed and completely, etc. See Leviticus 11:3 note. Of all the quadrupeds of which the Law forbids the flesh to be eaten, the pig seems to have been regarded as the most unclean.

7. The swine — The Jews are not alone in their abhorrence of swine’s flesh. It was forbidden to the Egyptian priests, disallowed by the Koran, and rejected by the Phenicians, Ethiopians and other Eastern nations.