Deuteronomy 14:21
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You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The Israelites were not only to suffer no idolatry to rise up in their midst, but in all their walk of life to show themselves as a holy nation of the Lord; and neither to disfigure their bodies by passionate expressions of sorrow for the dead (Deu 14:1 and Deu 14:2), nor to defile themselves by unclean food (vv. 3-21). Both of these were opposed to their calling. To bring this to their mind, Moses introduces the laws which follow with the words, "ye are children to the Lord your God." The divine sonship of Israel was founded upon its election and calling as the holy nation of Jehovah, which is regarded in the Old Testament not as generation by the Spirit of God, but simply as an adoption springing out of the free love of God, as the manifestation of paternal love on the part of Jehovah to Israel, which binds the son to obedience, reverence, and childlike trust towards a Creator and Father, who would train it up into a holy people. The laws in Deu 14:1 are simply a repetition of Lev 19:28 and Lev 21:5. למת, with reference to, or on account of, a dead person, is more expressive than לנפשׁ (for a soul) in Lev 19:28. The reason assigned for this command in Deu 14:2 (as in Deu 7:6) is simply an emphatic elucidation of the first clause of Deu 14:1. (On the substance of the verse, see Exo 19:5-6).
Open source ↗Moses in this chapter teaches them, I. To distinguish themselves from their neighbours by a singularity, 1. In their mourning (Deu 14:1, Deu 14:2). 2. In their meat (v. 3-21). II. To devote themselves unto God, and, in token of that, to give him his dues out of their estates, the yearly tithe, and that every third year, for the maintenance of their religious feasts, the Levites, and the poor (Deu 14:22, etc.).
Open source ↗14:21 Animals that had died a natural death were considered unclean (even if considered clean while living) because they had not been slaughtered according to ritual protocol and their blood had not been properly drained and disposed of (see 12:23-25). • You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk: A common explanation for why this pagan practice was improper is that it displayed insensitivity to the natural feelings of affection and trust between mothers and their offspring (see 28:56-57).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, which would make him unclean. I am the LORD.
for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
And any person, whether native or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening; then he will be clean.
And the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by Him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, and times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people has finally been shattered, all these things will be completed.”
Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”
for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”