Deuteronomy 14:9-10

On clean and unclean Fishes; Leviticus 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 scalesare clean practically rules out eels 1 [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.