When God instructed the Jews on which animals to avoid, He didn’t give a list of names (although He does in Deuteronomy 14:4-5). Instead, He simply said to avoid anything that chews the cud and has a split hoof. If they have both of those qualities, they were considered unclean.
There were some exceptions to this rule. In the verses that follow, God mentions the camel, the rabbit, the pig, and the “shaphan”—a type of mouse or small rabbit. These animals, though they may have one of the two criteria (split hooves and/or chews the cud), were still considered unclean.
There are four categories in all of “unclean beasts” that the Israelites were to avoid: animals, fish, birds, and insects. There is also possibly a fifth category at the end consisting of “things that crawl on the earth.”
Only the regulations for the fish are without specific types of animals. For those, they must simply have both fins and scales in order to be considered clean. That would unfortunately exclude catfish—a fish we hold dear to our hearts here in the South.
Birds, on the other hand, don’t have criteria. Instead, God gives an actual list of birds to avoid, including falcon, vultures, ostriches, owls, and storks.
Surprisingly, there’s not a lot of debate as to why these birds are singled out. The one underlying factor with all of them is the fact that they are all scavengers—that is, they eat the flesh of other animals who have already died. Since contact with dead carcasses was considered unclean anyways, birds who do this can’t be clean either.
As a side note, Leviticus 11:19 classifies the bat in the bird category. I’m not sure we would call it a bird; it’s more like a flying rodent, which might be why it’s placed last in this list. A bat’s diet consists of insects, which is the next category that God mentions.
All “winged insects” are off limits for Israelites, except for locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers. According to those who have tried them, locusts are high in protein, making them excellent nutritional sources for those experiencing famine or itinerant preachers who are paving the way for the Messiah.
Although not a separate category unto itself, God specifies a few more animals in Leviticus 11:29 that are considered unclean. These are called “swarming things,” but we would refer to them more as reptiles: crocodiles, chameleons, geckos, and sand reptiles. Mice are also included in this list.
For a group of people who are trying to survive in the wilderness, a list like this may have felt restrictive. That wasn’t the point, though. A call to excluding animals like this is not only an appeal to health (since most of these animals carried diseases), but also a call to holiness. God wanted them to be His people, and as His people, they needed to be clean.
And as they’ll soon find out, God always takes care of His people. They’ll never have to eat vultures if they stay faithful to Him.
