Commentary - Deuteronomy 14:3-21

Bird's-eye view

In this chapter, Moses reiterates and expands upon the dietary laws that were to set Israel apart as a holy nation. This is not some arbitrary list of culinary preferences from the Almighty, nor is it primarily a lesson in ancient hygiene. These laws are a central part of what has been called the "holiness code." They were a gigantic, living, breathing, audio-visual aid given to Israel to teach them one fundamental lesson: separation. God is holy, meaning He is separate, distinct, and utterly unique. As His covenant people, Israel was to reflect that holiness in every aspect of their lives, down to what they put on their dinner plates. These distinctions between clean and unclean were designed to create a distinct people, a culture that could not simply blend in and disappear among the pagan nations surrounding them. Every meal was to be a reminder of their covenant identity. With the coming of Christ, this temporary audio-visual aid has been fulfilled and set aside. The wall of separation between Jew and Gentile has been demolished. But the lesson it taught remains: God's people are still called to be holy, not through dietary restriction, but through a heart consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The passage categorizes the animal kingdom into three spheres: land, water, and air. For each sphere, God provides a clear, simple rubric for determining what is clean and what is not. Land animals must have a completely split hoof and chew the cud. Water creatures must have both fins and scales. The laws for birds are given by way of a list of exceptions, primarily birds of prey and scavengers. The section concludes with prohibitions against eating what dies of itself and the curious command not to boil a young goat in its mother's milk. Each of these served to build a framework of discernment in the Israelite mind, training them to distinguish between the holy and the common, the clean and the unclean, in anticipation of the day when the Lord Himself would make all things clean.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy is the great covenant renewal ceremony for the nation of Israel. The generation that came out of Egypt has perished in the wilderness, and now their children stand on the plains of Moab, poised to enter the Promised Land. Moses, in his final sermons, is recommitting them to the covenant God made with them at Sinai. Chapter 14 comes within a larger section that details the practical outworking of their covenant obligations. Having declared in chapter 12 that they must destroy all pagan altars and worship God only in the place He chooses, and in chapter 13 that they must purge all idolatrous influences from their midst, Moses now turns to the very fabric of their daily lives. Worship is not just for the tabernacle; it is for the dinner table. The command to be a "holy people" (Deut 14:2, 21) frames this entire section. Their diet was to be a constant, practical expression of their separation unto Yahweh and their separation from the idolatrous practices of the Canaanites they were about to displace.

Key Issues

An Audio-Visual Aid for Holiness

It is crucial that we understand what these food laws were for. They were not, in the first instance, about health or hygiene. While some of the prohibited animals might have been more prone to carry disease, that is a secondary benefit, not the primary purpose. The central point was theological. These laws were part of the ceremonial law, which functioned as a massive object lesson for Israel. God was teaching them the concept of holiness. To be holy is to be set apart, to be different. God is holy because He is utterly distinct from His creation. He commanded Israel to be holy because they were to be utterly distinct from the pagan nations.

So God established tangible, physical, daily reminders of this required separation. This, not that. Here, not there. This animal, not that one. The distinctions themselves were not necessarily based on some inherent moral quality in the animals. A pig is not a sinner. Rather, God established the rules, and obedience to those rules constantly reinforced Israel's unique identity. Every time an Israelite looked at an animal, he had to run it through a mental grid: Does it have a split hoof? Does it chew the cud? Fins and scales? This process of discernment, of making distinctions, was training for a much deeper moral and spiritual discernment. These laws built a wall of separation between Israel and her neighbors, a wall that Christ Himself would tear down when the lesson was complete (Eph 2:14). The audio-visual aid is now retired, but the lesson it taught, the call to holiness, remains for the Church.

Verse by Verse Commentary

3 “You shall not eat any abominable thing.

This is the headline, the governing principle for all that follows. The word "abominable" is a strong one. It refers to something that is detestable and repulsive to God, often in the context of idolatry. By using this word, Moses immediately frames the dietary laws not as a matter of taste, but as a matter of loyalty to Yahweh. To eat what God has forbidden is not just to break a rule; it is to do something He finds disgusting. It is an act of covenant rebellion. This sets the stakes high from the outset.

4-5 These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

Before giving the rule, Moses provides a list of familiar, permissible animals. This is a pastoral kindness. He starts with the positive, with what they can do. The list includes both domestic livestock (ox, sheep, goat), which would also be used in sacrifices, and a number of wild game animals. This shows that the law was not intended to be an impossible burden, but rather to provide a wide and gracious provision for God's people within the boundaries He established for their holiness.

6 And any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in two and chews the cud, among the animals, that one you may eat.

Here is the rule for land animals. It is a twofold test, and both conditions must be met. First, the animal must have a cloven, or completely divided, hoof. Second, it must be a ruminant, an animal that "chews the cud." What is the symbolic significance? Theologians have offered various suggestions, but within the framework of separation, the point is the clarity of the standard. A split hoof is a picture of discernment, of making distinctions. Chewing the cud, or re-digesting food, can be seen as a picture of meditating on God's Word. A clean man is one who walks rightly and meditates on the law of the Lord. These animals, in their very anatomy, acted out a parable of the righteous man. Whether the average Israelite grasped this level of typology is secondary to the main point: God has a standard, it is clear, and you must apply it.

7 Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which chew the cud or among those that divide the hoof in two: the camel and the rabbit and the shaphan, for though they chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.

Now come the examples of animals that meet one criterion but not the other. The camel, the rabbit, and the shaphan (or rock badger) are all ruminants, but they do not have a true, cloven hoof. Therefore, they fail the test. This reinforces the need for strict obedience. Close is not good enough. God's standard is not a negotiation. This trained the Israelites to pay close attention to God's commands and not to blur the lines He had drawn.

8 And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

The pig is the classic example of the opposite case. It has a split hoof, but it does not chew the cud. Therefore, it is unclean. The pig would become the quintessential unclean animal, and Gentile nations were often associated with the eating of pork. The prohibition is absolute: not only are they not to eat it, but they are not even to touch its dead body. This created a powerful social and cultural barrier between Israel and her neighbors, a tangible expression of their separation.

9-10 “These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, but anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

The rule for aquatic life is just as clear and binary. To be clean, a water creature must have both fins and scales. This would permit most fish but would exclude things like shellfish (clams, oysters, shrimp, lobster), eels, and catfish. Again, the principle is one of clear classification. Creatures with fins and scales move through the water in a predictable, orderly way. Those without them, like crustaceans that crawl on the bottom or eels that slither, represent a kind of mixture or confusion of categories. God is a God of order, not confusion, and His people's diet was to reflect that.

11-18 “You may eat any clean bird. But these are the ones which you shall not eat: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, and every raven in its kind, and the ostrich, the owl, the gull, and the hawk in their kinds, the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat.

For birds, the law works by exception. Instead of a simple rule, God provides a "do not eat" list. A clear pattern emerges from this list. The prohibited birds are overwhelmingly birds of prey, scavengers, or birds that live in desolate places. They are associated with violence, death, and darkness. The eagle, vulture, hawk, and owl are predators. The raven and carrion vulture feast on dead carcasses. By forbidding these, God was teaching His people to detest violence and to separate themselves from death and decay. They were to be a people of life. The inclusion of the bat is interesting, as we classify it as a mammal, but in the ancient world's phenomenal system, anything that flew was a "bird."

19 And all the teeming life with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten.

This verse seems to be a general prohibition against flying insects. Leviticus 11:20-23 makes an exception for certain types of locusts and grasshoppers, which were clean. This general rule here in Deuteronomy reinforces the principle of order. Swarming insects represent a kind of chaotic, teeming life that was to be avoided.

20 You may eat any clean bird.

This verse reiterates the opening statement of this section, providing a positive bookend to the list of prohibitions. God's law is not simply about what you cannot do; it provides for what you can. There was an abundance of clean birds for them to eat and enjoy.

21 “You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your gates, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

This final verse contains two distinct laws. First, the prohibition against eating an animal that died naturally. This is because the blood would not have been properly drained from it, and the consumption of blood was strictly forbidden (Lev 17:14). Blood represented the life of the animal, which belonged to God alone. Interestingly, they were permitted to give or sell such a carcass to a foreigner. This underscores the covenantal nature of these laws. They were for Israel, the "holy people," to mark them as distinct. The foreigner was not under the same covenant obligations. Second, we have the prohibition against boiling a kid in its mother's milk. This seems odd to us, but it was likely a pagan Canaanite fertility ritual. The deeper principle, the "general equity" of this law, is that you must not take something God designed as a source of life and nurture (a mother's milk) and pervert it into an instrument of death. This is a profound principle with wide application. God requires us to honor the created order, not to twist it into something grotesque.

Application

So what does a twenty-first-century Christian, who enjoys a bacon cheeseburger with a side of shrimp, do with a passage like this? First, we rejoice. We rejoice that in Jesus Christ, the dividing wall has been torn down. Peter's vision in Acts 10, where God commands him to "kill and eat" all manner of unclean animals, was the divine announcement that this entire ceremonial system was fulfilled and abrogated. Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19). Our holiness is no longer demonstrated by our diet, but by our faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Second, we learn the lesson that the audio-visual aid was designed to teach. We are still called to be a holy people, set apart for God. Our separation is not from certain foods, but from the world's way of thinking, its corrupt values, and its lawless behavior. We are to be in the world, but not of it. We must be constantly discerning, distinguishing between the wisdom of God and the foolishness of the age. We are to meditate on the Word of God day and night, "chewing the cud" of Scripture so that it transforms our minds and directs our paths.

Finally, we embrace the principles that undergird these laws. We are to be a people of life, not death. We are to hate violence and predation. We are to be people of order, not confusion. And we must never take the good gifts of God, the things He has designed for life and blessing, and twist them into instruments of death and perversion. This applies to everything from sexuality to the Sabbath to the nurture of our children. The dietary laws are gone, but the God who gave them, and the holiness He demands, are the same yesterday, today, and forever.