Deuteronomy 14:21

21 Because you are a people holy to God, your God, don't eat anything that you find dead. You can, though, give it to a foreigner in your neighborhood for a meal or sell it to a foreigner. Don't boil a kid in its 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 Winged insects are ritually unclean; don't eat them.
20 But ritually clean winged creatures are permitted.
21 Because you are a people holy to God, your God, don't eat anything that you find dead. You can, though, give it to a foreigner in your neighborhood for a meal or sell it to a foreigner. Don't boil a kid in its mother's milk.
22 Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year.
23 Bring this into the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before God, your God, as long as you live.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.