'swa swa clæne neten eodorcende' - Mosaic law stipulated that only animals which chewed the cud and had cloven hooves were clean and should be eaten. Exegetes frequently associated the chewing of the cud with meditating on the scriptures. Ælfric states that þa clænan nytenu þe heora cudu ceowað getacniað þa men þe on heora mode smeagað embe godes willan ('the clean beasts who chew their cud betoken those men who meditate in their mind about God's will'). His homily on Maccabbees includes a lengthy discussion of the difference between unclean and clean animals (Skeat XXV, lls. 37-84).