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Deuteronomy 14:1-21
New English Translation

The Holy and the Profane

14 You are children[a] of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald[b] for the sake of the dead. 2 For you are a people holy[c] to the Lord your God. He[d] has chosen you to be his people, prized[e] above all others on the face of the earth.

3 You must not eat any forbidden thing.[f] 4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the ibex,[g] the gazelle,[h] the deer,[i] the wild goat, the antelope,[j] the wild oryx,[k] and the mountain sheep.[l] 6 You may eat any animal that has hooves divided into two parts and that chews the cud.[m] 7 However, you may not eat the following animals among those that chew the cud or those that have divided hooves: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger.[n] (Although they chew the cud, they do not have divided hooves and are therefore ritually impure to you.) 8 Also, the pig is ritually impure to you; though it has divided hooves,[o] it does not chew the cud. You may not eat their meat or even touch their remains.

9 These you may eat from among water creatures: anything with fins and scales you may eat, 10 but whatever does not have fins and scales you may not eat; it is ritually impure to you.

11 All ritually clean birds[p] you may eat. 12 These are the ones you may not eat: the eagle,[q] the vulture,[r] the black vulture,[s] 13 the kite, the black kite, the dayyah[t] after its species, 14 every raven after its species, 15 the ostrich,[u] the owl,[v] the seagull, the falcon[w] after its species, 16 the little owl, the long-eared owl, the white owl,[x] 17 the jackdaw,[y] the carrion vulture, the cormorant, 18 the stork, the heron after its species, the hoopoe, and the bat.

19 And any swarming winged thing[z] is impure[aa] to you—they may not be eaten.[ab] 20 You may eat any winged creature that is clean. 21 You may not eat any corpse, though you may give it to the resident foreigner who is living in your villages[ac] and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. You are a people holy to the Lord your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.[ad]

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 14:1 tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); TEV, NLT “people.”
  2. Deuteronomy 14:1 sn Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald. These were pagan practices associated with mourning the dead; they were not to be imitated by God’s people (though they frequently were; cf. 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; Hos 7:14 [LXX]; Mic 5:1). For other warnings against such practices see Lev 21:5; Jer 16:5.
  3. Deuteronomy 14:2 tn Or “set apart.”
  4. Deuteronomy 14:2 tn Heb “The Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
  5. Deuteronomy 14:2 tn Or “treasured.” The Hebrew term סְגֻלָּה (segullah) describes Israel as God’s choice people, those whom he elected and who are most precious to him (cf. Exod 19:4-6; Deut 14:2; 26:18; 1 Chr 29:3; Ps 135:4; Eccl 2:8 Mal 3:17). See E. Carpenter, NIDOTTE 3:224.sn The Hebrew term translated “select” (and the whole verse) is reminiscent of the classic covenant text (Exod 19:4-6) which describes Israel’s entry into covenant relationship with the Lord. Israel must resist paganism and its trappings precisely because she is a holy people elected by the Lord from among the nations to be his instrument of world redemption (cf. Deut 7:6; 26:18; Ps 135:4; Mal 3:17; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet 2:9).
  6. Deuteronomy 14:3 tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (toʿevah, “forbidden; abhorrent”) describes anything detestable to the Lord because of its innate evil or inconsistency with his own nature and character. See note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25. Cf. KJV “abominable”; NIV “detestable”; NRSV “abhorrent.”sn This verse acts as a header for several short lists that describe what may and may not be eaten: land animals (vv. 4-8), water creatures (vv. 9-10), birds and bats (vv. 11-18), other winged creatures (vv. 19-20). Each set refers to clean and unclean animals.
  7. Deuteronomy 14:5 tn The Hebrew term אַיָּל (ʾayyal) may refer to a type of deer (cf. Arabic ʾayyal). Cf. NAB “the red deer.”
  8. Deuteronomy 14:5 tn The Hebrew term צְבִי (tsevi) is sometimes rendered “roebuck” (so KJV).
  9. Deuteronomy 14:5 tn The Hebrew term יַחְמוּר (yakhmur) may refer to a “fallow deer”; cf. Arabic yahmur (“deer”). Cf. NAB, NIV, NCV “roe deer”; NEB, NRSV, NLT “roebuck.”
  10. Deuteronomy 14:5 tn The Hebrew term דִּישֹׁן (dishon) is a hapax legomenon. Its referent is uncertain but the animal is likely a variety of antelope (cf. NEB “white-rumped deer”; NIV, NRSV, NLT “ibex”).
  11. Deuteronomy 14:5 tn The Hebrew term תְּאוֹ (teʾo; a variant is תּוֹא, toʾ) could also refer to another species of antelope. Cf. NEB “long-horned antelope”; NIV, NRSV “antelope.”
  12. Deuteronomy 14:5 tn The Hebrew term זֶמֶר (zemer) is another hapax legomenon with the possible meaning “wild sheep.” Cf. KJV, ASV “chamois”; NEB “rock-goat”; NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “mountain sheep.”
  13. Deuteronomy 14:6 tn The Hebrew text includes “among the animals.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  14. Deuteronomy 14:7 tn The Hebrew term שָׁפָן (shafan) may refer to the “coney” (cf. KJV, NIV) or hyrax (“rock badger,” cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).
  15. Deuteronomy 14:8 tc The MT lacks (probably by haplography) the phrase וְשֹׁסַע שֶׁסַע פַּרְסָה (veshosaʿ shesaʿ parsah, “and is clovenfooted,” i.e., “has parted hooves”), a phrase found in the otherwise exact parallel in Lev 11:7. The LXX and Smr attest the longer reading here. The meaning is, however, clear without it.
  16. Deuteronomy 14:11 tn According to HALOT the Hebrew term צִפּוֹר (tsippor) can to a “bird” or “winged creature” (HALOT 1047 s.v.). In this list it appears to include bats, while insects are put in their own list next. Hebrew terminology seems to have focused on the mode of movement or environment rather than our modern zoological taxonomies.
  17. Deuteronomy 14:12 tn NEB “the griffon-vulture.”
  18. Deuteronomy 14:12 tn The Hebrew term פֶּרֶס (peres) describes a large vulture otherwise known as the ossifrage (cf. KJV). This largest of the vultures takes its name from its habit of dropping skeletal remains from a great height so as to break the bones apart.
  19. Deuteronomy 14:12 tn The Hebrew term עָזְנִיָּה (ʿozniyyah) may describe the black vulture (so NIV) or it may refer to the osprey (so NAB, NRSV, NLT), an eagle-like bird subsisting mainly on fish.
  20. Deuteronomy 14:13 tn The Hebrew term is דַּיָּה (dayyah). This, with the previous two terms (רָאָה [raʾah] and אַיָּה [ʾayyah]), is probably a kite of some species but otherwise impossible to specify.
  21. Deuteronomy 14:15 tn Or “owl.” The Hebrew term בַּת הַיַּעֲנָה (bat hayyaʿanah) is sometimes taken as “ostrich” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT), but may refer instead to some species of owl (cf. KJV “owl”; NEB “desert-owl”; NIV “horned owl”).
  22. Deuteronomy 14:15 tn The Hebrew term תַּחְמָס (takhmas) is either a type of owl (cf. NEB “short-eared owl”; NIV “screech owl”) or possibly the nighthawk (so NRSV, NLT).
  23. Deuteronomy 14:15 tn The Hebrew term נֵץ (nets) may refer to the falcon or perhaps the hawk (so NEB, NIV).
  24. Deuteronomy 14:16 tn The Hebrew term תִּנְשֶׁמֶת (tinshemet) may refer to a species of owl (cf. ASV “horned owl”; NASB, NIV, NLT “white owl”) or perhaps even to the swan (so KJV); cf. NRSV “water hen.”
  25. Deuteronomy 14:17 tn The Hebrew term קָאַת (qaʾat) may also refer to a type of owl (NAB, NIV, NRSV “desert owl”) or perhaps the pelican (so KJV, NASB, NLT).
  26. Deuteronomy 14:19 tn The term עוֹף (ʿof) refers to winged creatures more broadly than “birds” and is repeated in v. 20. Here “swarming winged things” (שֶׁרֶץ הָעוֹף, sherets haʿof) most likely refers to “insects.”sn It is debatable whether vv. 11-20 form one list (e.g. NASB) or two (e.g. NIV) as it is taken here. Verses 11 and 20 each say “you may eat any clean X” and refer to flying creatures. The terms עוֹף (ʿof) and צִפּוֹר (tsippor, see v. 11) can both refer to birds, but are not limited to birds. Verse 12 begins and v. 19 ends with a clause saying what may not be eaten, while specific animals or classes of animals are listed in between. This has the appearance of a chiastic structure for one list. On the other hand, the lists of land animals and fish are simply divided into what one may eat and may not eat, suggesting that vv. 11-18 and 19-20 (each including both kinds of statements) are separate lists. Also an issue, the phrase in v. 19 “it is unclean” might refer back to v.12 and the singular זֶה (zeh, “this,” but translated “these in most English versions for stylistic reasons). This would help tie 12-19 together as one list, but the closer referent is “any…winged thing” earlier in v. 19. Verses 19 and 20 are also tied by the use of the term עוֹף.
  27. Deuteronomy 14:19 sn Lev 11:20-23 gives more details about unclean insects allowing locusts and grasshopper to be eaten. Cf. Matt 3:4; Mark 1:6.
  28. Deuteronomy 14:19 tc The Vulgate and fragments from the Cairo Genizah read “it shall not be eaten.” The LXX and Smr read “you shall not eat from them” (cf. 14:12). The MT, reading the Niphal (passive), is less likely to have been harmonized and the harder reading should stand.
  29. Deuteronomy 14:21 tn Heb “gates” (also in vv. 27, 28, 29).
  30. Deuteronomy 14:21 sn Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. This strange prohibition—one whose rationale is unclear but probably related to pagan ritual—may seem out of place here but actually is not for the following reasons: (1) the passage as a whole opens with a prohibition against heathen mourning rites (i.e., death, vv. 1-2) and closes with what appear to be birth and infancy rites. (2) In the other two places where the stipulation occurs (Exod 23:19 and Exod 34:26) it similarly concludes major sections. (3) Whatever the practice signified it clearly was abhorrent to the Lord and fittingly concludes the topic of various breaches of purity and holiness as represented by the ingestion of unclean animals (vv. 3-21). See C. M. Carmichael, “On Separating Life and Death: An Explanation of Some Biblical Laws,” HTR 69 (1976): 1-7; J. Milgrom, “You Shall Not Boil a Kid In Its Mother’s Milk,” BRev 1 (1985): 48-55; R. J. Ratner and B. Zuckerman, “In Rereading the ‘Kid in Milk’ Inscriptions,” BRev 1 (1985): 56-58; and M. Haran, “Seething a Kid in its Mother’s Milk,” JJS 30 (1979): 23-35.
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Leviticus 11
New English Translation

Clean and Unclean Land Creatures

11 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, 2 “Tell the Israelites: ‘This is the kind of creature you may eat from among all the animals[a] that are on the land. 3 You may eat any among the animals that has a divided hoof (the hooves are completely split in two[b]) and that also chews the cud.[c] 4 However, you must not eat these[d] from among those that chew the cud and have divided hooves: The camel is unclean to you[e] because it chews the cud[f] even though its hoof is not divided.[g] 5 The rock badger[h] is unclean to you because it chews the cud even though its hoof is not divided. 6 The hare is unclean to you because it chews the cud even though its hoof is not divided. 7 The pig is unclean to you because its hoof is divided (the hoof is completely split in two[i]) , even though it does not chew the cud.[j] 8 You must not eat from their meat and you must not touch their carcasses;[k] they are unclean to you.

Clean and Unclean Water Creatures

9 “‘These you can eat from all creatures that are in the water: Any creatures in the water that have both fins and scales,[l] whether in the seas or in the streams,[m] you may eat. 10 But any creatures that do not have both fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the streams, from all the swarming things of the water and from all the living creatures that are in the water, are detestable to you. 11 Since they are detestable to you, you must not eat their meat and their carcass you must detest. 12 Any creature in the water that does not have both fins and scales is detestable to you.

Clean and Unclean Birds

13 “‘These you are to detest from among the birds—they must not be eaten, because they are detestable:[n] the griffon vulture, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, 14 the kite, the buzzard of any kind,[o] 15 every kind of crow,[p] 16 the eagle owl,[q] the short-eared owl, the long-eared owl, the hawk of any kind, 17 the little owl, the cormorant, the screech owl, 18 the white owl, the scops owl, the osprey, 19 the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

Clean and Unclean Insects

20 “‘Every winged swarming thing that walks on all fours[r] is detestable to you. 21 However, this you may eat from all the winged swarming things that walk on all fours, which have jointed legs[s] to hop with on the land. 22 These you may eat from them:[t] the locust of any kind, the bald locust of any kind, the cricket of any kind, the grasshopper of any kind. 23 But any other winged swarming thing that has four legs is detestable to you.

Carcass Uncleanness

24 “‘By these[u] you defile yourselves—anyone who touches their carcass will be unclean until the evening, 25 and anyone who carries their carcass must wash his clothes and will be unclean until the evening.

Inedible Land Quadrupeds

26 “‘All[v] animals that divide the hoof, but it is not completely split in two,[w] and do not chew the cud[x] are unclean to you; anyone who touches them becomes unclean.[y] 27 All that walk on their paws among all the creatures that walk on all fours[z] are unclean to you. Anyone who touches their carcass will be unclean until the evening, 28 and the one who carries their carcass must wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening; they are unclean to you.

Creatures that Swarm on the Land

29 “‘Now this is what is unclean to you among the swarming things that swarm on the land:[aa] the rat, the mouse, the large lizard of any kind, 30 the Mediterranean gecko, the spotted lizard, the wall gecko, the skink, and the chameleon. 31 These are the ones that are unclean to you among all the swarming things. Anyone who touches these creatures[ab] when they die will be unclean until evening. 32 Also, anything they fall on[ac] when they die will become unclean—any wood vessel or garment or article of leather or sackcloth. Any such vessel with which work is done must be immersed in water[ad] and will be unclean until the evening. Then it will become clean. 33 As for any clay vessel they fall into,[ae] everything in it[af] will become unclean and you must break it. 34 Any food that may be eaten which becomes soaked with water[ag] will become unclean. Anything drinkable[ah] in any such vessel will become unclean.[ai] 35 Anything their carcass may fall on will become unclean. An oven or small stove must be smashed to pieces; they are unclean, and they will stay unclean[aj] to you. 36 However, a spring or a cistern which collects water[ak] will be clean, but one who touches the creature’s carcass will be unclean. 37 Now, if such a carcass falls on any sowing seed which is to be sown,[al] it is clean, 38 but if water is put on the seed and such a carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you.

Edible Land Animals

39 “‘Now if an animal[am] that you may eat dies,[an] whoever touches its carcass will be unclean until the evening. 40 One who eats from its carcass must wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening, and whoever carries its carcass must wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. 41 Every swarming thing that swarms on the land is detestable; it must not be eaten. 42 You must not eat anything that crawls[ao] on its belly or anything that walks on all fours or on any number of legs[ap] of all the swarming things that swarm on the land, because they are detestable. 43 Do not make yourselves detestable by any of the swarming things.[aq] You must not defile yourselves by them and become unclean by them, 44 for I am the Lord your God and you are to sanctify yourselves and be holy because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any of the swarming things that creep on the ground, 45 for I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God,[ar] and you are to be holy because I am holy. 46 This is the law[as] of the land animals, the birds, all the living creatures that move in the water, and all the creatures[at] that swarm on the land, 47 to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between the living creatures that may be eaten and the living creatures that must not be eaten.’”

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Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 11:2 tn Heb “the animal,” but as a collective plural, and so throughout this chapter.
  2. Leviticus 11:3 tn Heb “every divider of hoof and cleaver of the cleft of hooves”; KJV, ASV “parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted.”
  3. Leviticus 11:3 tn Heb “bringer up of the cud” (a few of the ancient versions include the conjunction “and,” but it does not appear in the MT). The following verses make it clear that both dividing the hoof and chewing the cud were required; one of these conditions would not be enough to make the animal suitable for eating without the other.
  4. Leviticus 11:4 tn Heb “this,” but as a collective plural (see the following context).
  5. Leviticus 11:4 sn Regarding “clean” versus “unclean,” see the note on Lev 10:10.
  6. Leviticus 11:4 tn Heb “because a chewer of the cud it is” (see also vv. 5 and 6).
  7. Leviticus 11:4 tn Heb “and hoof there is not dividing” (see also vv. 5 and 6).
  8. Leviticus 11:5 sn A small animal generally understood to be Hyrax syriacus; KJV, ASV, NIV “coney”; NKJV “rock hyrax.”
  9. Leviticus 11:7 tn See the note on Lev 11:3.
  10. Leviticus 11:7 tn The meaning and basic rendering of this clause is quite certain, but the verb for “chewing” the cud here is not the same as the preceding verses, where the expression is “to bring up the cud” (see the note on v. 3 above). It appears to be a cognate verb for the noun “cud” (גֵּרָה, gerah) and could mean either “to drag up” (i.e., from the Hebrew Qal of גָרָר [garar] meaning “to drag,” referring to the dragging the cud up and down between the stomach and mouth of the ruminant animal; so J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:647, 653) or “to chew” (i.e., from the Hebrew Niphal [or Qal B] of גָרָר used in a reciprocal sense; so J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 149, and compare BDB 176 s.v. גָרַר, “to chew,” with HALOT 204 s.v. גרר qal. B, “to ruminate”).
  11. Leviticus 11:8 sn The regulations against touching the carcasses of dead unclean animals (contrast the restriction against eating their flesh) is treated in more detail in Lev 11:24-28 (cf. also vv. 29-40). For the time being, this chapter continues to develop the issue of what can and cannot be eaten.
  12. Leviticus 11:9 tn Heb “all which have fin and scale” (see also vv. 10 and 12).
  13. Leviticus 11:9 tn Heb “in the water, in the seas and in the streams” (see also vv. 10 and 12).
  14. Leviticus 11:13 tn For zoological remarks on the following list of birds see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:662-64; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 159-60.
  15. Leviticus 11:14 tn Heb “and the buzzard to its kind” (see also vv. 16 and 19 for the same expression “of any kind”).
  16. Leviticus 11:15 tn Heb “every crow to its kind.” Many English versions (e.g., KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) render this as “raven.”
  17. Leviticus 11:16 tn Literally, “the daughter of the wasteland.” Various proposals for the species of bird referred to here include “owl” (KJV), “horned owl” (NIV, NCV), and “ostrich” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).
  18. Leviticus 11:20 tn Heb “the one walking on four” (cf. vv. 21-23 and 27-28).
  19. Leviticus 11:21 tn Heb “which to it are lower legs from above to its feet” (reading the Qere “to it” rather than the Kethib “not”).
  20. Leviticus 11:22 tn For entomological remarks on the following list of insects see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:665-66; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 160-61.
  21. Leviticus 11:24 tn Heb “and to these.”
  22. Leviticus 11:26 tn Heb “to all” (cf. the note on v. 24). This and the following verses develop more fully the categories of uncleanness set forth in principle in vv. 24-25.
  23. Leviticus 11:26 tn Heb “divides hoof and cleft it does not cleave”; KJV “divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted”; NLT “divided but unsplit hooves.”
  24. Leviticus 11:26 tn See the note on Lev 11:3.
  25. Leviticus 11:26 sn Compare the regulations in Lev 11:2-8.
  26. Leviticus 11:27 tn Heb “the one walking on four.” Cf. Lev 11:20-23.
  27. Leviticus 11:29 tn For zoological analyses of the list of creatures in vv. 29-30, see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:671-72; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 161-62.
  28. Leviticus 11:31 tn Heb “touches them.”
  29. Leviticus 11:32 tn Heb “And all which it shall fall on it from them.”
  30. Leviticus 11:32 tn Heb “in water it shall be brought.”
  31. Leviticus 11:33 tn Heb “And any earthenware vessel which shall fall from them into its midst.”
  32. Leviticus 11:33 tn Heb “all which is in its midst.”
  33. Leviticus 11:34 tn Heb “which water comes on it.”
  34. Leviticus 11:34 tn Heb “any drink which may be drunk”; NASB “any liquid which may be drunk”; NLT “any beverage that is in such an unclean container.”
  35. Leviticus 11:34 tn This half of the verse assumes that the unclean carcass has fallen into the food or drink (cf. v. 33 and also vv. 35-38).
  36. Leviticus 11:35 tn Heb “be unclean.”
  37. Leviticus 11:36 tn Heb “a spring and a cistern collection of water”; NAB, NIV “for collecting water.”
  38. Leviticus 11:37 tn Heb “And if there falls from their carcass on any seed of sowing which shall be sown.”
  39. Leviticus 11:39 tn This word for “animal” refers to land animal quadrupeds, not just any beast that dwells on the land (cf. 11:2).
  40. Leviticus 11:39 tn Heb “which is food for you” or “which is for you to eat.”
  41. Leviticus 11:42 tn Heb “goes” (KJV, ASV “goeth”); NIV “moves about”; NLT “slither along.” The same Hebrew term is translated “walks” in the following clause.
  42. Leviticus 11:42 tn Heb “until all multiplying of legs.”
  43. Leviticus 11:43 tn Heb “by any of the swarming things that swarm.”
  44. Leviticus 11:45 tn Heb “to be to you for a God.”
  45. Leviticus 11:46 sn The Hebrew term translated “law” (תּוֹרָה, torah) introduces here a summary or colophon for all of Lev 11. Similar summaries are found in Lev 7:37-38; 13:59; 14:54-57; and 15:32-33.
  46. Leviticus 11:46 tn Heb “for all the creatures.”
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