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Hoofin' It

Is the Bible Wrong About Hares Having Hooves?
James Patrick Holding


Deut. 14:7 Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.

It is objected that the proper term for a hare's foot is not a hoof. The Hebrew word here, however, can indicate a claw or a hoof, and hares do have claws. The word is used only 22 times in the OT, but it is derived from this word:

perec, peh'-res; from H6586; a claw; also a kind of eagle:--claw, ossifrage.

As usual, the problem is that critics are assigning technical meaning to a generic term, based on a poor KJV translation. This is also the problem when critics charge that camels do indeed have hooves. Actually they do not, unless we use the term "hoof" imprecisely. Camels have a large pad but do not have what is properly called a hoof. For more on this see the discussion here


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