Creeping Things

How Nave’s arranged it

• A general term for animalsGenesis 1:26Leviticus 11:20–23Leviticus 11:29–31Leviticus 11:42Psalms 104:20Psalms 104:25Romans 1:23
• UncleanLeviticus 5:2Leviticus 11:20Leviticus 11:29–44Deuteronomy 14:19
• CleanLeviticus 11:21Leviticus 11:22
• Uses of, in idolatrous worshipEzekiel 8:10

The passages, in Bible order (12)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 12 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 1:26

   Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”

   ›Commentary on Genesis 1:262 voices

   “But this is God's kindness to man, that of whom He is Maker, of them according to grace He afterwards becomes Father also; becomes, that is, when men, His creatures, receive into their hearts, as the Apostle says, 'the Spirit of His Son, crying, Abba, Father.' And these are they who, having received the Word, gained power from Him to become sons of God; for they could not become sons, being by nature creatures, otherwise than by receiving the Spirit of the natural and true Son.

   “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness,....

   Everything gathered on Genesis 1:26→

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2. Leviticus 5:2

   Or if a person touches anything unclean—whether the carcass of any unclean wild animal or livestock or crawling creature—even if he is unaware of it, he is unclean and guilty.

   ›Commentary on Leviticus 5:22 voices

   “Or if a soul touch any unclean thing,....

   “Any unclean thing - Either the dead body of a clean animal, or the living or dead carcass of any unclean creature. All such persons were to wash their clothes and themselves in clean water, and were considered as unclean till the evening, Lev 11:24-31. But if this had been neglected, they were obliged to bring a trespass-offering. What this meant, see in the notes on Leviticus 7 (note).

   Everything gathered on Leviticus 5:2→

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3. Leviticus 11:20–23

   All flying insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you.

   ›Commentary on Leviticus 11:20–232 voices

   “All fowls that creep,.... Or rather "every creeping thing that flies"; for what are designed are not properly fowls, but, as the Jewish writers interpret them, flies, fleas, bees, wasps, hornets, locusts, &c. so the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, Ben Gersom, and Maimonides (y): going upon all four; that is, upon their four feet, when they walk or creep: these shall be an abomination to you; not used as food, but detested as such. (y) Maacolot Asurot, c. 2. l. 5.

   “All fowls that creep - Such as the bat, already mentioned, which has claws attached to its leathern wings, and which serve in place of feet to crawl by, the feet and legs not being distinct; but this may also include all the different kinds of insects, with the exceptions in the following verse.

   Everything gathered on Leviticus 11:20–23→

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4. Leviticus 11:21

   However, you may eat the following kinds of flying insects that walk on all fours: those having jointed legs above their feet for hopping on the ground.

   ›Commentary on Leviticus 11:212 voices

   “Yet these may ye eat,....

   “Legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth - The families of the Saltatoria, of which the common cricket, the common grasshopper, and the migratory locust, may be taken as types.

   Everything gathered on Leviticus 11:21→

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5. Leviticus 11:22

   Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket, or grasshopper.

   ›Commentary on Leviticus 11:222 voices

   “Even these of them ye may eat, &c.

   “The locust - ארבה arbeh, either from ארב arab, to lie in wait or in ambush, because often immense flights of them suddenly alight upon the fields, vineyards, etc., and destroy all the produce of the earth; or from רבה rabah, he multiplied, because of their prodigious swarms. See a particular account of these insects in the notes on Exo 10:4 (note). The bald locust - סלעם solam, compounded, says Mr. Parkhurst, from סלע sala, to cut, break, and עם am, contiguity; a kind of locust, probably so called from its rugged, craggy form.

   Everything gathered on Leviticus 11:22→

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6. Leviticus 11:29–31

   The following creatures that move along the ground are unclean for you: the mole, the mouse, any kind of great lizard,

   ›Commentary on Leviticus 11:29–312 voices

   “These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth,....

   “The identification of “the creeping things” here named is not always certain. They are most likely those which were occasionally eaten. For the “Tortoise” read “the great lizard,” for the “ferret” the “gecko” (one of the lizard tribe), for the “chameleon” read the “frog” or the Nile lizard: by the word rendered “snail” is probably meant another kind of lizard, and by the “mole” the “chameleon.”

   Everything gathered on Leviticus 11:29–31→

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7. Leviticus 11:42

   Do not eat any creature that moves along the ground, whether it crawls on its belly or walks on four or more feet; for such creatures are detestable.

   ›Commentary on Leviticus 11:422 voices

   “Whatsoever goeth upon the belly,....

   “Whatsoever goeth upon the belly - In the word גהון gahon, the vau holem, in most Hebrew Bibles, is much larger than the other letters; and a Masoretic note is added in the margin, which states that this is the middle letter of the law; and consequently this verse is the middle verse of the Pentateuch. Whatsoever hath more feet - Than four; that is, all many-footed reptiles, as well as those which go upon the belly having no feet, such as serpents; besides the four-footed smaller animals mentioned above.

   Everything gathered on Leviticus 11:42→

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8. Deuteronomy 14:19

   All flying insects are unclean for you; they may not be eaten.

   ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 14:191 voice

   “And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean,.... Which the Targum of Jonathan thus paraphrases;"all flies and wasps (or hornets), and worms of lentiles and of beans, which are separated from food, and fly as birds, they are unclean;''See Gill on Lev 11:20; see Gill on Lev 11:21.

   Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 14:19→

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9. Psalms 104:20

   You bring darkness, and it becomes night, when all the beasts of the forest prowl.

   ›Commentary on Psalms 104:202 voices

   “You have set darkness, and it became night: in it all the beasts of the forest shall pass through. And according to the letter it has its own order: for night was made for this reason, that men might rest from their works, and that the beasts might go out to their feeding. But according to the figurative interpretation, when the sun of righteousness has set upon us, all things are dark to us, and then the beasts pass through against us, and the roaring lion, wishing to seize and devour us.

   “. Ver. 20. Thou, makest darkness, and it is night. Drawing down the blinds for us, he prepares our bedchamber that we may sleep. Were there no darkness we should sigh for it, since we should find repose so much more difficult, if the weary day were never calmed into night. Let us see God's hand in the veiling of the sun, and never fear either natural or providential darkness, since both are of the Lord's own making. Wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. Then is the lion's day, his time to hunt his food.

   Everything gathered on Psalms 104:20→

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10. Psalms 104:25

    Here is the sea, vast and wide, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both great and small.

    ›Commentary on Psalms 104:252 voices

    “Let us, therefore, in the faith of the disciples, converse frequently with our Master. For the world is like the sea to us, my brothers, of which it is written, "This is the great and wide sea, there go the ships; the Leviathan, which you have created to play therein." We float on this sea, as with the wind, through our own free will, for everyone directs his course according to his will, and either, under the pilotage of the Word, he enters into rest, or, laid hold on by pleasure, he suffers shipwreck and is in peril by storm.

    “So is this great and wide sea,.... One of the great and manifold works of God, made in his wisdom, and full of his riches and possessions, as the earth is; this is that collection of waters which God called seas, Gen 1:10 and is, as Kimchi observes, great in length, and wide and spacious in breadth; or "broad of hands" (i), as in the original; or spacious in borders, as the Targum; it washing the several parts of the continent, and encompassing and embracing the whole earth with both arms as it were.

    Everything gathered on Psalms 104:25→

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11. Ezekiel 8:10

    So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel.

    ›Commentary on Ezekiel 8:102 voices

    “(Verse 10) And I entered and saw: and behold, every likeness of creeping things and abomination of animals: and all the idols of the house of Israel were depicted on the wall all around. Not only did the idol of Zele stand at the entrance of the northern gate, but also all the walls of the Temple were painted with various images of idols: so that there was no animal that the painting on the wall did not show.

    “So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things,....

    Everything gathered on Ezekiel 8:10→

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12. Romans 1:23

    and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

    ›Commentary on Romans 1:232 voices

    “And changed the glory of the incorruptible God,.... God is incorruptible and immortal in his nature, and so is opposed to all corruptible creatures and things: he has a glory which is essential to him, and a manifestative one in the creatures, and which is relative, and of right belongs to him: his absolute essential glory cannot be changed, cannot be taken away from him, nor given to another; but his relative glory may be said to be changed, when another is worshipped in his stead, and called by his name.

    “People like this make it hard to tell which was the more contemptible, the worshipers or the worshiped. Perhaps the worshipers by far, since as rational beings and recipients of God's grace, they chose their inferior for patron and better.

    Everything gathered on Romans 1:23→

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