The Targum Jonathan opens Leviticus 11 with a number the Hebrew Bible never provides: Israel must "separate on account of uncleanness eighteen kinds of food to be rejected." The standard text lists forbidden animals one by one. The Targum counts them, systematizes them, and frames the entire dietary code as a single, quantifiable commandment.
The bird identifications reveal how the Targum functioned as a field guide. Where the Hebrew names are often obscure, the Targum identifies specific species: the "snatcher of fish from the sea," the ibis, the bustard, the cuckoo, the woodpecker. The bat gets listed with the birds, following the ancient classification. Scholars still debate many of these identifications, but the Targum's translators clearly intended their audience to recognize local wildlife.
Among flying insects, the Targum adds a critical exception: "of honey of the bee you may eat." The Hebrew Bible bans flying insects that walk on four legs but never explicitly permits bee honey. The Targum does, resolving a question that would occupy the rabbis for centuries.
The edible locusts get remarkable names: the wingless locust, the bald locust, the "serpent-killer" locust, and the karzeba or palmerworm. The serpent-killer is a Targum-only identification—an insect known for attacking snakes, permitted as food while most of its relatives were banned.
The unclean reptiles include "the weasel, the mouse—black, red, and white—and the toad." The color distinctions for mice are a Targum addition, suggesting that some varieties may have been considered more or less dangerous.
The chapter closes with a principle the Targum elevates beyond hygiene: "I am the Lord who have brought you up free from the land of Egypt, that I may be a God to you; and you may be holy, for I am Holy." Dietary law and liberation theology are the same sentence.