Deuteronomy 14:15

your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2 For thou art a 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. 3 Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. 4 These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5 The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. 6 And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. 7 Nevertheless 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. 8 And 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. 9 These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat: 10 And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you. 11 Of all clean birds ye shall eat. 12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, 13 And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, 14 And every raven after his kind, 15 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk

14:1-21 Moses tells the people of Israel how God had given them three distinguishing privileges, which were their honour, and figures of those spiritual blessings in heavenly things, with which God has in Christ blessed us. Here is election; The Lord hath chosen thee. He did not choose them because they were by their own acts a peculiar people to him above other nations, but he chose them that they might be so by his grace; and thus were believers chosen, Eph 1:4. Here is adoption; Ye are the children of the Lord your God; not because God needed children, but because they were orphans, and needed a father. Every spiritual Israelite is indeed a child of God, a partaker of his nature and favour. Here is sanctification; Thou art a holy people. God's people are required to be holy, and if they are holy, they are indebted to the grace God which makes them so. Those whom God chooses to be his children, he will form to be a holy people, and zealous of good works. They must be careful to avoid every thing which might disgrace their profession, in the sight of those who watch for their halting. Our heavenly Father forbids nothing but for our welfare. Do thyself no harm; do not ruin thy health, thy reputation, thy domestic comforts, thy peace of mind. Especially do not murder thy soul. Do not be the vile slave of thy appetites and passions. Do not render all around thee miserable, and thyself wretched; but aim at that which is most excellent and useful.

The laws which regarded many sorts of flesh as unclean, were to keep them from mingling with their idolatrous neighbours. It is plain in the gospel, that these laws are now done away. But let us ask our own hearts, Are we of the children of the Lord our God? Are we separate from the ungodly world, in being set apart to God's glory, the purchase of Christ's blood? Are we subjects of the work of the Holy Ghost? Lord, teach us from these precepts how pure and holy all thy people ought to live!

But these are they of which they shall not eat,.... Jarchi observes, that the unclean birds are particularly mentioned, to teach that the clean sort are more than the unclean, and therefore the particulars of the fewest are given: these are all the same names as in Leviticus 11:13 , excepting one, "the glede", Deuteronomy 14:13 which is a kind of kite or puttock; the Jerusalem Targum renders it the vulture, and the Targum of Jonathan the white "dayetha" or vulture; and Aristotle says (q) there are two sorts of vultures, the one small and whiter, the other larger and of many forms or colours; in Hebrew its name here is "raah", and is thought to be the same with "daah" in Leviticus 11:14 there translated the "vulture", which has its name there from flying, and here from seeing, for which it is remarkable; see Job 28:7 and the letters and are pretty much alike, and are sometimes changed, but there is another here, in Deuteronomy 14:13 mentioned, the "dayah", which is not mentioned in Leviticus 11:1 , though some think it the same with the "ayah", rendered both here and there the "kite"; perhaps it means another sort of vulture, the black vulture, as the Targum of Jonathan. (q) Hist. Animal. l. 8. c. 3.

15 . ostrich ] bath hay-ya‘aneh either daughter of greed or of the plain ; Arabs call it father of the plains ; they eat the breast (Doughty, i. 132 f.). LXX, στρουθός . night hawk ] taḥmas ( violence ; Ar. zalîm also means both violence and ostrich). Some take it as the male ostrich. Tristram (90): the barn-owl, strix flammea . LXX, γλᾶυξ . seamew ] shahaph , LXX, λάρος , cormorant; gull (Post, Hastings’ D.B. ); sterna fluviatilis , tern (Tr. 135). hawk ] neṣ , LXX, ἱέραξ . Tristram (106): generic for all small hawks, such as sparrow-hawk ( accipiter nisus , 106), kestrel, etc. Deuteronomy 14:15

With reference to food, the Israelites were to eat nothing whatever that was abominable. In explanation of this prohibition, the laws of Leviticus 11 relating to clean and unclean animals are repeated in all essential points in vv. 4-20 (for the exposition, see at Leviticus 11 ); also in Deuteronomy 14:21 the prohibition against eating any animal that had fallen down dead (as in Exodus 32:30 and Leviticus 17:15 ), and against boiling a kid in its mother's milk (as in Exodus 23:19 ).

[Bible] 14:2. Because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God: and he chose thee to be his peculiar people of all nations that are upon the earth. 14:3. Eat not the things that are unclean. Unclean... See the annotations on Lev. 11. 14:4. These are the beasts that you shall eat, the ox, and the sheep, and the goat, 14:5. The hart and the roe, the buffle, the chamois, the pygarg, the wild goat, the camelopardalus. 14:6. Every beast that divideth the hoof in two parts, and cheweth the cud, you shall eat. 14:7. But of them that chew the cud, but divide not the hoof, you shall not eat, such as the camel, the hare, and the cherogril: because they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof, they shall be unclean to you. 14:8. The swine also, because it divideth the hoof, but cheweth not the cud, shall be unclean, their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. 14:9. These shall you eat of all that abide in the waters: All that have fins and scales, you shall eat. 14:10. Such as are without fins and scales, you shall not eat, because they are unclean. 14:11. All birds that are clean you shall eat. 14:12. The unclean eat not: to wit, the eagle, and the grype, and the osprey, 14:13. The ringtail, and the vulture, and the kite according to their kind: 14:14. And all of the raven's kind: 14:15. And the ostrich, and the owl, and the larus, and the hawk according to its kind: 14:16. The heron, and the swan, and the stork, 14:17. And the cormorant, the porphirion, and the night crow, 14:18. The bittern, and the charadrion, every one in their kind: the houp also and the bat. 14:19. Every thing that creepeth, and hath little wings, shall be unclean, and shall not be eaten. 14:20. All that is clean, you shall eat. 14:21. But whatsoever is dead of itself, eat not thereof. Give it to the stranger, that is within thy gates, to eat, or sell it to him: because thou art the holy people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.

when thou hearkenest to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, that thou mayest do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah thy God. Chapter 14 Ye are sons of Jehovah your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for a dead person. For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, and thee hath Jehovah chosen for a people of possession unto himself, out of all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat; the hart, and the gazelle, and the stag, and the wild goat, and the dishon and the oryx, and the wild sheep. And every beast that hath cloven hoofs, and the feet quite split open into double hoofs, [and] which cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that ye shall eat. Only these ye shall not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those with hoofs cloven and split open: the camel, and the hare, and the rock-badger; for they chew the cud, but have not cloven hoofs — they shall be unclean unto you; and the swine, for it hath cloven hoofs, yet cheweth not the cud — it shall be unclean unto you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch. These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales shall ye eat; but whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye shall not eat: it shall be unclean unto you. All clean birds shall ye eat.