Deuteronomychapter 14
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,
It stands in Do not cut yourselves; you are his children, verses 1 to 2.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The dietary reminder and the tithe. ‘Ye are the children of the LORD your God’. Do not mar yourselves for the dead as the nations do. The clean and unclean list from Leviticus 11 recapitulated. ‘Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk’ (third appearance). The tithe eaten before the LORD at the place he chooses, or converted to money and spent there when the distance is too great (for wine, strong drink, oxen, sheep, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after). The third-year tithe kept at home for the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Worship and charity intertwined in the rhythm of harvest.
Context
Law · Moses · Deuteronomy overview
The world behind this chapter
Deuteronomy 14The history
The speech is Moses in the first person, and the chapter addresses the whole nation as sons of the LORD before it gives a single rule.
The setting is the plain east of the Jordan in the fortieth year, at about 1406 BC on the frame this site keeps.
The occasion is ordinary life in the land, which is why the chapter runs from mourning to meat to the tithe without changing subject.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
A first hearer knew that cutting the body and shaving the head for the dead were normal mourning in the region. The prophets of Baal cut themselves at 1 Kings 18:28, and Jeremiah 16:6 and 41:5 show Israelites doing it anyway.
He knew the animals by name. The ten clean beasts of verses 4 and 5 include seven kinds of wild game, which fits a people allowed since 12:15 to hunt and eat at home.
He knew that a tenth was an ordinary due, and Numbers 18:21 had given the tithe to the Levites. What surprised him here is that the tenth of verses 22 to 27 is eaten by the man who brings it.
He knew what distance cost. The permission at verse 25 to sell the produce and carry the money assumes a road too long to walk with a harvest on your back.
What it meant to them
Every rule in the chapter came with a reason about who the people were. Israel did not cut itself for the dead because Israel was a family of sons.
The tithe arrived as a feast rather than as a payment, and the text says the feast itself is how a man learns to fear God.
Every third year the tenth stayed in the town, and the four who came and ate were the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
Sources cited
- The site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 14, in the store
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible , 1832
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch
Where the chapter sits
Deuteronomy 14 falls in Second sermon, the law restated (chapters 5–26). The Decalogue repeated; the Shema; laws for the land, for worship, for kingship, for war, for the poor. The covenant's central exposition.
Before it: First sermon, retrospective, chapters 1–4. After it: Third sermon, blessings and curses, chapters 27–30.
The whole shape of Deuteronomy→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Do not cut yourselves; you are his childrenvv. 1-2
Deuteronomy 14:1-3
The ban on cutting the flesh and shaving the head for the dead is grounded in sonship, since the reason given first is that Israel belongs to God as children. Leviticus 21:5 laid that rule on the priests and Leviticus 19:28 on the people, and here the whole nation is addressed as sons before it is told to keep it. Peculiar people is the phrase of Exodus 19:5, and Titus 2:14 and 1 Peter 2:9 take it up for the church. 1 Kings 18:28 shows the prophets of Baal cutting themselves, and Jeremiah 16:6 and 41:5 show Israelites doing it anyway.
Deuteronomy 14:1
“Make any baldness between your eyes - i. e. by shaving the forepart of the head and the eyebrows. The practices named in this verse were common among the pagan, and seem to be forbidden, not only because such wild excesses of grief (compare 1Ki 18:28) would be inconsistent in those who as children of a heavenly Father had prospects beyond this world, but also because these usages themselves arose out of idolatrous notions.”
Deuteronomy 14:2
“Not for their own merit, nor for any good works foreseen, but because he would magnify the riches of his power and grace among them. He did not choose them because they were by their own dedication and subjection 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. i.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
B. What may be eaten on land, in sea, on wing
1. (v. 3)
Deuteronomy 14:3
“Among the Jews, frugality was made a matter of precept by a very wise dispensation of the law. The Educator forbade them the use of innumerable things. He explained the reasons, the spiritual ones hidden, the material ones obvious, but all of which they trusted. Some animals [were forbidden] because they were [not] cloven-footed; others, because they did not ruminate their food; a third class, because they, alone among all the fish of the seas, had no scales; until finally there were only a few things left fit for food.”
Clement of Alexandria· written before 215· The Instructor Book 2patristic
2. (vv. 4-8)
Deuteronomy 14:4
“These are the beasts which they shall eat,.... That is, which they might lawfully eat of, which were allowed for their food; for they were not obliged to eat of them if they did not choose it: the ox, the sheep, and the goat; which were creatures used in sacrifice, and the only ones, yet nevertheless they might be used for food if chosen.”
Deuteronomy 14:5
“The hart - איל aiyal, the deer, according to Dr. Shaw: see the note on Deu 12:15. The roebuck - צבי tsebi, generally supposed to be the antelope, belonging to the fifth order Pecora, genus Mammalia, and species 38. It has round twisted spiral horns, hairy tufts on the knees, browses on tender shoots, lives in hilly countries, is fond of climbing rocks, and is remarkable for its beautiful black eyes. The flesh is good and well flavoured.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 14:5
“The hart--(see on De 12:15). fallow deer--The Hebrew word (Jachmur) so rendered, does not represent the fallow deer, which is unknown in Western Asia, but an antelope (Oryx leucoryx), called by the Arabs, jazmar. It is of a white color, black at the extremities, and a bright red on the thighs.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 14:6
“And every beast that parted the hoof,....”
Leviticus 11:2-8 gave the two tests and named only the camel, the coney, the hare and the swine among the animals that fail them. Deuteronomy names ten clean beasts outright and seven of them are wild game, which fits the permission at 12:15 to kill and eat the hart and the roebuck at home. Verse 6 states the hoof test in a fuller form, cleaveth the cleft into two claws, where Leviticus 11:3 says clovenfooted and stops. The camel, the hare and the coney are all said to chew the cud, and readers have differed over the words, some holding that they report what a herdsman watching the animal sees rather than describing its stomach.
3. (vv. 9-20)
Deuteronomy 14:9
“These ye shall eat of, all that are in the waters,.... The fishes there, even such as have fins and scales, but they that have not were not to be eaten: See Gill on Lev 11:9, Lev 11:10, Lev 11:11, Lev 11:12.”
Deuteronomy 14:11
“Of all clean birds ye shall eat. Which the Targum of Jonathan describes, everyone that has a craw, and whose crop is naked, and has a superfluous talon, and is not rapacious; but such as are unclean are expressed by name in the following verses, so that all except them might be reckoned clean and fit for food. Maimonides (p) observes, that only the number of the unclean are reckoned, so that all the rest are free. (p) Hilchot. Maacolot Asurot, c. 1. sect. 14.”
Deuteronomy 14:12
“But these are they of which they shall not eat,....”
Deuteronomy 14:13
“The vulture after his kind - The word דאה daah is improperly translated vulture Lev 11:14, and means a kite or glede. The word דיה daiyah in this verse is not only different from that in Leviticus, but means also a different animal, properly enough translated vulture. See the note on Lev 11:14.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 14:19
“And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean,.... Which the Targum of Jonathan thus paraphrases;"all flies and wasps (or hornets), and worms of lentiles and of beans, which are separated from food, and fly as birds, they are unclean;''See Gill on Lev 11:20; see Gill on Lev 11:21.”
Deuteronomy 14:20
“But of all clean fowls ye may eat. Even of all fowls, but those before excepted; Aben Ezra instances in the locust, as being a clean fowl, that might be eaten; and so the Targum of Jonathan is"every clean locust ye may eat;''see Lev 11:22.”
Water creatures get a test and no list, fins and scales, so the rule reaches species nobody has named. The birds are handled the other way, by naming what is forbidden and leaving all the rest clean, and this list runs to twenty one where Leviticus 11:13-19 gives twenty, the glede being the addition. The bat closes the list of fowls, since the grouping follows how a creature moves rather than how it is built. Leviticus 11:21-22 allowed four kinds of leaping insect, the locust among them, and verse 19 forbids every creeping thing that flieth without repeating that exception, which the Targum of Jonathan and Aben Ezra supply from the earlier text.
4. (v. 21)
Deuteronomy 14:21
“Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk - Mr. Calmet thinks that this precept refers to the paschal lamb only, which was not to be offered to God till it was weaned from its mother; but see the note on Exo 23:19.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 14:21
“They might feed upon that which an Israelite might not touch, which is a plain instance of their peculiarity, and their being a holy people. [2.] It is plain in the gospel that they are now antiquated and repealed.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
One verse carries three rules and ties them together with the reason that Israel is a holy people. What died of itself may be given to the stranger in thy gates or sold to an alien, while Leviticus 17:15 puts washing and uncleanness on the home born and the stranger alike, and both accounts stand in the canon. The kid boiled in its mother's milk is forbidden here for the third time, after Exodus 23:19 and Exodus 34:26, and none of the three gives a reason, so the later separation of meat from milk in Jewish practice rests on the repetition. Clarke passes on Calmet's reading that the rule concerns the offering rather than ordinary cooking.
C. Eat your tithe before him; the third-year store
1. (vv. 22-27)
Deuteronomy 14:23
“And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there,....”
Deuteronomy 14:24
“And if the way be too long for thee,....”
Deuteronomy 14:25
“Thou shalt then turn it into money,.... The tithe, which would be lighter and easier carriage: and bind up the money in thine hand; put it into a bag or purse, and tie it up and carry it in the hand; which some think was ordered, that it might not be mixed with other money; but it seems only to have respect to journeying, and making it fit for that.”
Deuteronomy 14:26
“Or for strong drink - What the sikera or strong drink of the Hebrews was, see in the note on Lev 10:9 (note). This one verse sufficiently shows that the Mosaic law made ample provision for the comfort and happiness of the people.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 14:27
“And the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him,.... As not from giving him the first tithe, as Jarchi remarks, so he was not to forget him in this; he was not to leave him behind, but take him with him to partake of this entertainment: for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee in the land: see Deu 12:12.”
Numbers 18:21 gave the tithe to the Levites, and the tithe here is eaten by the man who brings it, at the place the Lord shall choose to place his name. Readers have taken that two ways: the older Jewish reckoning, which Josephus and Clarke follow, counts a second tithe distinct from the Levites' tenth, while others read one tithe described from another angle in another book. When the road is long the produce may be sold, the money bound up in the hand and carried, and spent at the sanctuary on oxen, sheep, wine or strong drink, whatsoever thy soul desireth. The reason attached to the meal is that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always, which makes the feast itself the lesson.
2. (vv. 28-29)
Deuteronomy 14:28
“At the end of three years - That is, in the third year, as it is, expressed, chap. xxvi, 12. The same year - This is added to shew that he speaks of the third year, and not of the fourth year, as some might conjecture from the phrase, at the end of three years.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 14:28
“Compare the marginal references. The tithe thus directed in the third year to be dispensed in charity at home, was not paid in addition to that in other years bestowed on the sacred meals, but was substituted for it. The three years would count from the sabbatical year (see the next chapter), in which year there would of course be neither payment of tithe nor celebration of the feasts at the sanctuary. In the third year and sixth year of the septennial cycle the feasts would be superseded by the private hospitality enjoined in these verses.”
Deuteronomy 14:29
“And the Levite (because he hath no part nor inheritance - And hence much of his support depended on the mere freewill-offerings of the people. God chose to make his ministers thus dependent on the people, that they might be induced (among other motives) to labor for their spiritual profiting, that the people, thus blessed under their ministry, might feel it their duty and privilege to support and render them comfortable.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 14:29
“And the Levite, because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,....”
Every third year the tithe stays home and is laid up within thy gates, and 26:12 calls that year the year of tithing. The four who come and eat are the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, and those same four stand together again at 16:11, 16:14 and 26:12-13. The Levite is listed with the poor because he has no part nor inheritance, so the man who serves the sanctuary eats from the provision that feeds the widow. James 1:27 keeps the fatherless and the widow at the centre of what God counts as religion.
This page carries no textual note on Deuteronomy 14. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.