1“You are children of YHWH, your God. You shall not cut yourselves and shall not make a bald place between your eyes for the dead.
14:1. cut yourselves. This commandment is already given, in different language, in Lev 19:28. Now the commandment not to “make a bald place” is added to it. In Leviticus this latter commandment refers only to priests (21:5). In some matters, such as entry into the Tabernacle, priests are different from the rest of the people. But in certain other matters, all Israelites are to behave like priests, reflecting the idea that “you are a holy people to YHWH,” which is stated in the next verse (Deut 14:2). These cases of imitation of the priests act as a sign and a reminder of what Israel was told at the beginning of the covenant at Sinai: if they will listen and observe the covenant, they will be a “kingdom of priests” (Exod 19:6).
2Because you are a holy people to YHWH, your God, and YHWH has chosen you to become a treasured people to Him out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
3“You shall not eat any offensive thing.
4This is the animal that you shall eat: ox, lamb of sheep, and lamb of goats,
14:4. This is the animal that you shall eat. On the dietary laws, cf. the comments on Leviticus 11.
5deer and gazelle and roebuck and wild goat and bison and antelope and mountain sheep
6and every animal that has a hoof and that has a split of hooves in two, that regurgitates cud, among animals, you shall eat it.
7Except you shall not eat this out of those that regurgitate the cud and out of those that have a hoof: the camel and the rock-badger and the hare, because they regurgitate cud and do not have a hoof; they are impure to you.
8And the pig, because it has a hoof but no cud; it is impure to you. You shall not eat from their meat, and you shall not touch their carcass.
9“You shall eat this out of all that are in the water: you shall eat every one that has fins and scales.
10And you shall not eat any one that does not have fins and scales; it is impure to you.
11“And you shall eat any pure bird.
12And this is what you shall not eat from them: the eagle and the vulture and the black vulture
13and the kite and the falcon by its kind
14:13. kite and the falcon. There are problems, apparently scribal, in this verse. The first word, r
’h, is an apparent resh/dalet scribal error for d’h, as it appears in Lev 11:14. The third word, dayyh, may be a further confusion of d’h. It does not appear in the Septuagint.
14and every raven by its kind
15and the eagle owl and the nighthawk and the seagull and the hawk by its kind,
16the little owl and the great owl and the white owl
17and the pelican and the fish hawk and the cormorant
18and the stork and the heron by its kind and the hoopoe and the bat.
19“And every swarming thing of flying creatures; it is impure to you. It shall not be eaten.
20You shall eat every pure bird.
21“You shall not eat any carcass. You shall give it to the alien who is in your gates, and he will eat it, or sell to a foreigner. Because you are a holy people to YHWH, your God.
“You shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.
14:21. a kid in its mother’s milk. This is the third occurrence of this command (Exod 23:19; 34:26), and it is the first time that it is grouped with the laws of forbidden animals. It does not appear in the corresponding list in Leviticus 11. Its origin and purpose are thus different from the other dietary laws. Its original meaning may have been ritual or moral (see the comment on Exod 23:19), but it belongs to a different category of law from the prohibitions of eating pigs and other animals.
22“You shall tithe all of your seed’s produce that comes out of the field year by year.
23And you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil and the firstborn of your herd and your flock in front of YHWH, your God, in the place that He will choose to tent His name there, so that you’ll learn to fear YHWH, your God, all the days.
24And if the way will be too long for you because you won’t be able to carry it because the place that YHWH, your God, will choose to set His name there will be far from you, because YHWH, your God, will bless you,
25then you shall give it by money. And you shall enclose the money in your hand and go to the place that YHWH, your God, will choose.
26And you shall spend the money for anything that your soul will desire: for herd and for flock and for wine and for beer and for anything that your soul will ask of you. And you shall eat there in front of YHWH, your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.
27And the Levite who is in your gates: you shall not leave him, because he doesn’t have a portion and legacy with you.
28“At the end of three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year and leave it within your gates,
29and the Levite will come, because he doesn’t have a portion and legacy with you, and the alien and the orphan and the widow who are in your gates, and they shall eat and be full, so that YHWH, your God, will bless you in all your hand’s work that you’ll do.
