Deuteronomy 14:21

21 Ye shall eat nothing that dies of itself; it shall be given to the sojourner in thy cities and he shall eat it, or thou shalt sell it to a stranger, because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a lamb in his mother's milk.

Deuteronomy 14:21 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 14:21

Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself
This law is repeated from ( Leviticus 17:15 ) , (See Gill on Leviticus 17:15):

thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may
eat it;
not to the proselyte of righteousness, for he might not eat of it any more than an Israelite, and if he did, he was obliged to wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and was unclean until the evening, as in ( Leviticus 17:15 ) but to a proselyte of the gate, who took upon him, as Jarchi observes, not to serve idols, one that has renounced idolatry, but has not embraced the Jewish religion; such an one might eat of things that died of themselves, or were not killed in a proper manner. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan call him an uncircumcised stranger or proselyte, who had not submitted to circumcision, as the proselyte of righteousness did:

or thou mayest sell it unto an alien;
an idolater, one that was neither a proselyte of righteousness nor of the gate, an entire alien from the commonwealth of Israel; one that was occasionally in the land of Canaan, or was travelling in it or through it, to such an one it might be sold:

for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God;
separated from all others, and devoted to his service, and therefore must live on clean, food and good meat, and not eat what others might:

thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk;
this is the third time this law is mentioned; refer to the notes, (See Gill on Exodus 23:19), (See Gill on Exodus 34:26); the reason of which repetition, the Jewish writers say F19, is, that it is once said to forbid the eating it, a second time to forbid any use of it or profit by it, and a third time to forbid the boiling of it.


FOOTNOTES:

F19 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 2. sect. 9.

Deuteronomy 14:21 In-Context

19 All winged animals that creep are unclean to you; ye shall not eat of them.
20 Ye shall eat every clean bird.
21 Ye shall eat nothing that dies of itself; it shall be given to the sojourner in thy cities and he shall eat it, or thou shalt sell it to a stranger, because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a lamb in his mother's milk.
22 Thou shalt tithe a tenth of all the produce of thy seed, the fruit of thy field year by year.
23 And thou shalt eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to have his name called there; ye shall bring the tithe of thy corn and of thy wine, and of thine oil, the first-born of thy herd and of thy flock, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.