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Deuteronomy 14

KJV · Chapter 14/34

1Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

2For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

3Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.

4These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,

5The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois.

6And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.

7Nevertheless 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.

8And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.

9These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat:

10And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.

11Of all clean birds ye shall eat.

12But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

13And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,

14And every raven after his kind,

15And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,

16The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,

17And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,

18And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

19And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten.

20But of all clean fowls ye may eat.

21Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

22Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.

23And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always.

24And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee:

25Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose:

26And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household,

27And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.

28At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates:

29And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Moses repeats the dietary laws (clean and unclean animals) already given in Leviticus, forbids pagan mourning practices such as cutting the body, and details the tithing system, including a special provision every three years for Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows.

Explanation

The repetition of the dietary laws here, decades after Leviticus, shows the ongoing importance of these practices as markers of Israel's distinct identity among the nations, even on the eve of entering the promised land and facing new cultural influences. The prohibition of ritual mourning cuts ('ye shall not cut yourselves... for the dead') distinguished Israelite mourning from Canaanite practices of self-mutilation in funeral rites, once again tying religious identity to visible, everyday practices. The three-year tithe system, directed specifically toward the most vulnerable members of society (the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, the widow), shows an economic structure deliberately built to include regular, institutionalized social care, not merely occasional, voluntary charity.

Fun facts

  • The prohibition against 'seething a kid in his mother's milk' (v. 21), repeated three times in the Torah (here, and in Exodus 23:19 and 34:26), is the basis for the modern Jewish practice of keeping meat and dairy completely separate (kashrut), although the exact original meaning of the prohibition is still debated among scholars.
  • The special three-year tithe for the poor (v. 28-29), distinct from the regular annual tithe, is sometimes called by scholars the 'third tithe' or the 'poor tithe,' showing a social welfare system structured in multi-year cycles within Israel's agricultural economy.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Deuteronomy 14:1It forbids Canaanite mourning rituals, such as cutting the body or shaving the forehead for the dead — practices common among neighboring peoples but off-limits to Israel.
  2. Deuteronomy 14:2It repeats the reason behind these rules: Israel is a holy people, chosen by God out of all the nations on earth.
  3. Deuteronomy 14:3It introduces the block of dietary laws with a general rule: nothing considered detestable was to be eaten.
  4. Deuteronomy 14:4It begins the list of permitted animals: ox, sheep, and goat, the most common domestic animals.
  5. Deuteronomy 14:5It continues the list with permitted wild animals: deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, and similar animals.
  6. Deuteronomy 14:6The rule of eating only animals that chew the cud and have a split hoof excludes the pig, which has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud, and also the camel or the hare, which chew the cud but don’t have a split hoof. It’s the same list from Leviticus 11, repeated here as part of Moses’s final speech.
  7. Deuteronomy 14:7It excludes from the permitted list animals that meet only one of the two conditions (chewing the cud or having a split hoof), such as the camel, the hare, and the rabbit.
  8. Deuteronomy 14:8It specifically excludes the pig, which has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud — forbidden both to eat and to touch its carcass.
  9. Deuteronomy 14:9It moves on to water creatures: only those with fins and scales are permitted.
  10. Deuteronomy 14:10Everything that lives in the water without fins and scales is considered unclean and forbidden.
  11. Deuteronomy 14:11General rule for birds: any bird classified as clean may be eaten.
  12. Deuteronomy 14:12It begins the list of forbidden birds: the eagle, the ossifrage, and the osprey, birds of prey associated with death and carrion.
  13. Deuteronomy 14:13It continues the list with the glede, the kite, and the vulture, birds of prey after their kind.
  14. Deuteronomy 14:14The raven makes the list of unclean animals — yet it would later be a raven that fed the prophet Elijah in the wilderness, bringing him bread and meat (1 Kings 17).
  15. Deuteronomy 14:15These birds of prey and desert birds complete this part of the list of those unfit to eat — notice that the Bible doesn’t explain the reason for each prohibition, it just lists which ones to avoid.
  16. Deuteronomy 14:16More nocturnal birds of prey make the list: the little owl, the great owl, and the swan.
  17. Deuteronomy 14:17It continues with the pelican, the gier eagle, and the cormorant, birds tied to water or to carrion.
  18. Deuteronomy 14:18It closes the bird list with the stork, the heron, the lapwing, and the bat (classified together with the birds in this system).
  19. Deuteronomy 14:19It extends the prohibition to every flying insect or winged creeping thing, treated as unclean.
  20. Deuteronomy 14:20It repeats the general rule: every bird classified as clean is permitted for consumption.
  21. Deuteronomy 14:21The prohibition against cooking a kid in “his mother’s milk” is one of the most debated laws in the Bible: it may reject a Canaanite fertility rite, or simply be a rule against mixing life and death on the same plate. Scholars have not reached a consensus on the exact reason.
  22. Deuteronomy 14:22The tithe here isn’t donated, it’s eaten: the people brought a tenth of the harvest to the sanctuary and held a feast with it before God. If the journey was too far, they could sell everything, bring the money, and buy wine, cattle, and “strong drink” there for the same feast.
  23. Deuteronomy 14:23It details the consumption of the tithe: eaten before God, at the place He chose, as a way to learn to fear Him continually.
  24. Deuteronomy 14:24It provides for the exception of distance: if the journey to the sanctuary was too long, physically transporting the tithe would become impractical.
  25. Deuteronomy 14:25The solution in that case was to sell the produce, carry the money in hand, and travel to the place God had chosen.
  26. Deuteronomy 14:26Once there, the money could buy whatever was desired — meat, wine, drink — for a festive meal before God.
  27. Deuteronomy 14:27It again reinforces care for the Levite, who depended on these offerings since he had no land of his own.
  28. Deuteronomy 14:28Every three years, this tithe, instead of becoming a feast, was kept in the town itself to support the Levite, who had no land of his own, as well as the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow — the people with no economic safety net in that world.
  29. Deuteronomy 14:29Every three years, the tithe would be kept locally to support the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow — bringing a blessing on the work of the one who gives.

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