Commentary - Exodus 22:31

Bird's-eye view

Exodus 22:31 is a concise and potent command that lands in the middle of the Book of the Covenant, the collection of case laws that apply the principles of the Ten Commandments to the daily life of Israel. At first glance, it appears to be a simple dietary rule, a footnote in the ceremonial law. But within this single verse lies a foundational principle of biblical ethics: God's people are called to be holy, set apart from the world, and this separation is to be reflected in the most basic and mundane aspects of their lives, including what they eat. The prohibition against eating an animal torn by beasts in the field is not arbitrary. It is a tangible, physical lesson about the distinction between life and death, clean and unclean, and order and chaos. It teaches Israel that their identity as a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, requires them to reject what is defiled and common. Ultimately, this points forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, the truly Holy One, who does not consume what is dead but rather brings life out of death, making His people holy not through dietary observance but through His own shed blood.

This verse, therefore, serves as a microcosm of the entire ceremonial law. Its purpose is to create a distinct people, a people whose habits and patterns of life preach a constant sermon about the character of the God they serve. He is a God of life, not death; of order, not chaos. The command to throw the unclean meat to the dogs further reinforces this separation, drawing a sharp line between the covenant community and the world outside. For the Christian, the principle endures: we are not to feed our souls on the carrion of a fallen world but are to be nourished by Christ alone, the bread of life.

Outline

Context In Exodus

This command is part of the "Book of the Covenant" (Exodus 20:22-23:33), which immediately follows the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. God has just redeemed His people from Egypt in a spectacular display of power and grace. He has constituted them as His own nation. Now, He is giving them His law. It is crucial to remember the order: redemption first, then law. The law is not a ladder for Israel to climb up to earn God's favor; it is the instruction for how to live as a people who have already received God's favor. These laws, ranging from regulations about slavery and restitution to capital crimes and religious festivals, are designed to shape Israel into a society that reflects God's justice, wisdom, and holiness. This particular verse, with its focus on holiness expressed through diet, fits perfectly within this larger project of forming a people who are set apart in every area of life, distinct from the pagan nations surrounding them.

Key Issues

A Holy Diet for a Holy People

The entire Christian life is a response to a call. The call is from God, and it is a call to be something before it is a call to do something. The doing flows from the being. Here, in the heart of the law given at Sinai, God makes this plain. The foundation of all the specific commands that follow is the declaration of identity: "You shall be holy men to Me."

Holiness is not primarily about an emotional state or a certain level of moral polish. The root meaning of the word is "to be set apart," or "to be consecrated." God is holy because He is utterly separate from His creation, unique and transcendent. He calls His people to be holy by setting them apart from the fallen world for His own special possession and purpose. This verse demonstrates that this high calling is not an abstract, ethereal concept. It has teeth. It works its way down into the grit of everyday life, down to what you do with a sheep carcass you find out in the pasture. Your theology must be edible. If it doesn't affect your dinner table, it is not yet biblical theology.

Verse by Verse Commentary

31 “You shall be holy men to Me, therefore you shall not eat any flesh torn to pieces in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.

The verse is structured as a declaration followed by a consequence. The "therefore" is the hinge. Because you are My consecrated people, therefore this is how you are to act. The identity precedes the instruction. This is always the pattern of grace. God does not say, "If you stop eating torn flesh, then I will make you holy." He says, "You are holy, so live like it."

The specific prohibition is against eating flesh "torn to pieces in the field." The Hebrew word here is terephah, which refers to an animal killed by a predator. Why is this forbidden? There are a few interconnected reasons. First, such an animal would not have been properly bled. The life of the creature is in the blood (Lev. 17:11), and God had commanded that the blood was to be drained and given back to Him, not consumed by man. An animal torn by a lion or wolf would still have the blood in its meat, making it profane for an Israelite to eat. Second, it represents a death that is outside the created order of man's dominion. God gave man the authority to kill animals for food, but this was to be done in an orderly way, recognizing God as the giver of life. An animal killed by a predator is, in a sense, carrion. It is the result of the violence and chaos of the fall. Holy people, who serve the God of order and life, are not to partake of such things.

Finally, what is to be done with this unclean meat? "You shall throw it to the dogs." This is not just a practical instruction for waste disposal. In the Bible, dogs are consistently portrayed as unclean scavengers, living on the outside of the camp, on the margins of civilization. The line is drawn with startling clarity. That which is unfit for God's holy people is fit for the dogs. This creates a tangible, daily reminder of the separation between the covenant community (the "holy men") and the unclean world outside. It is a picture of the great separation between the church and the world, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.

Application

Now, as New Covenant believers, we know that the ceremonial food laws have been fulfilled in Christ. Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19), and Peter was told in a vision not to call anything common that God has made clean (Acts 10:15). We are not made unholy by eating meat that a hunter finds in the woods. To insist on this particular rule would be to fall into the Judaizing error that Paul fought so fiercely in Galatians. The shadow has been replaced by the substance.

But while the specific regulation is abrogated, the principle it embodies is eternal. We are still called to be "holy men" and women to our God. Our holiness is not in what we eat, but it must be just as tangible and practical. The application for us is this: we must not feed our souls on the carrion of the world. We are not to nourish ourselves with what has been torn and ravaged by the chaos of the fall. This includes the ideologies, entertainments, philosophies, and priorities of a world in rebellion against its Creator. That which is celebrated in the world, its pride, its sensuality, its bitterness, its rebellion, is terephah. It is unfit for consumption by a child of the King.

What, then, do we do with it? We "throw it to the dogs." We recognize it as unclean and refuse to take it into ourselves. We leave it outside the camp. Instead, we are to feed on Christ, the Bread of Life (John 6:35). He is the one who was "torn" for us, but in a holy sacrifice that brings life, not in a chaotic death that brings defilement. Our spiritual diet is to be Christ and Christ alone, as revealed in the Scriptures. The principle of Exodus 22:31 remains: because we are a holy people, we must have a holy diet. We simply understand now that this diet is spiritual, not physical, and our nourishment is the Lord Jesus Himself.