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Deuteronomy 14:3

in Deuteronomy 14

You must not eat any detestable thing.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.

KJV

Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.

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This verse in Deuteronomy 14

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Clement of Alexandria

The Instructor Book 2 · Written before 215.

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.

This site's exposition

You are sons of the LORD your God

on Deuteronomy 14:1-3

The ban on cutting the flesh and shaving the forehead for the dead is grounded in sonship. Here the whole nation is addressed as sons before it is told to keep it.

This site's exposition

any detestable thing

Detestable is the word over the whole list that follows, the animals, water creatures and birds Israel must not eat. Verse 21 closes it with the carcass and the young goat. Daniel 1:8 shows the rule kept in exile.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

Thou shall not eat any abominable thing. That is so either in its own nature, or because forbidden by the Lord; what are such are declared in the following verses.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Compare Lev. 11. The variations here, whether omissions or additions, are probably to be explained by the time and circumstances of the speaker. Deu 14:5 The “pygarg” is a species of gazelle, and the “wild ox” and “chamois” are swift types of antelope. Deu 14:21 The prohibition is repeated from Lev 22:8. The directions as to the disposal of the carcass are unique to Deuteronomy, and their motive is clear.

The words behind it

4 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • לֹ֥אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • תֹאכַ֖לyou will eat

    tokhalH398 →810 times

  • כָּל־any

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • תּוֹעֵבָֽה׃disgusting thing

    toevahH8441 →117 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

11 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Ezekiel 4:14“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.”5 worksLeviticus 20:25You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.3 worksRomans 14:14I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.3 worksLeviticus 11:43Do not defile yourselves by any crawling creature; do not become unclean or defiled by them.3 worksTitus 1:15To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.2 worksIsaiah 65:4sitting among the graves, spending nights in secret places, eating the meat of pigs and polluted broth from their bowls.2 works
The other 5 cross-references, with their words ▾
1 Corinthians 10:28But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—2 worksActs 10:12–14It contained all kinds of four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, as well as birds of the air.2 worksEzekiel 8:10So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel.2 worksLeviticus 11:10But the following among all the teeming life and creatures in the water are detestable to you: everything in the seas or streams that does not have fins and scales.2 worksLeviticus 7:21If one touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness, an unclean animal, or any unclean, detestable thing, and then eats any of the meat of the peace offering that belongs to the LORD, that person must be cut off from his people.”2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Titus 1:15

    To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

    it leads to

    • Romans 14:14

      I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.

    • Romans 14:20

      Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block.

    • 1 Corinthians 10:23

      “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying.

    • 1 Timothy 4:3–4

      They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

  • Through

    Romans 14:14

    I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.

    it leads to

    • Titus 1:15

      To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

    • 1 Timothy 4:4

      For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,

    • Romans 14:2

      For one person has faith to eat all things, while another, who is weak, eats only vegetables.

    • 1 Corinthians 8:7

      But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it…

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Deuteronomy: the study guide →Read Deuteronomy 14 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 2; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch.

Read on in Deuteronomy 14 →