Deuteronomy 14:11-21

11 "All [of] [the] birds [that] [are] clean you may eat.

12 Now these [are] the ones you shall not eat {any of them}: the eagle and the vulture and the short-toed eagle,

13 and the red kite and the black kite or {any kind of falcon},

14 and any [kind] of crow according to its kind,

15 and the {ostrich} and the short-eared owl and the seagull and the hawk according to its kind,

16 the little owl and the great owl and the barn owl,

17 and the desert owl and the carrion vulture and the cormorant,

18 and the stork and the heron according to its kind and the hoopoe and the bat.

19 And [also] all [of] {the winged insects}; they [are] unclean for you; you shall not eat [them].

20 You may eat any clean bird.

21 "You shall not eat any carcass; you may give it to the alien who [is] in your {towns}, and he may eat it, or you may sell [it] to a foreigner, for you [are] a holy people for Yahweh your God; you may not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

Deuteronomy 14:11-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 14

In this chapter some cautions are given against the use of some rites and ceremonies in mourning for the dead, with the reason thereof, De 14:1,2 and instructions about what are lawful to be eaten, and what not, whether of beasts, fishes, or fowl, De 14:3-21, and concerning eating one sort of tithes both at the place God should choose, and within their own gates, De 14:22-29.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "from them"
• [b]. This list of birds is difficult to translate since the terms are not definitely known: e.g., some translations render the last bird as a "buzzard" (NASV); other translations give different names for all three: griffon vulture, black vulture, bearded vulture (NEB)
• [c]. Various options are available: large bird, kite, red kite, glede, buzzard
• [d]. Literally "or the falcon according to its kind"; other options for falcon: bird, falcon, kite (others as carrion-bird), vulture, crow or raven, buzzard
• [e]. Or others translate as "raven"
• [f]. Literally "daughter of the ostrich"; others "desert owl"
• [g]. Or "long-eared owl"
• [h]. Or "white owl"
• [i]. Or "large bird" or "horned-owl"
• [j]. Or "large bird"
• [k]. Or "large bird," or "fisher-owl"
• [l]. Literally "the swarmer[s] of the flyer[s]" or "all the swarms [of things] that fly"
• [m]. Or "corpse"
• [n]. Literally "gates"