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Clean and Unclean Foods

Do not eat any detestable thing.

These are the animals that you may eat: cattle, sheep, and goats; deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep. Every animal that has divided hoofs with splits in the middle and that rechews its food[a] among the animals—you may eat them.

But these you are not to eat from among those that either rechew their food or have divided hoofs with splits in the middle: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because even though they rechew their food, their hoofs are not divided. They are unclean for you. The pig, because it has divided hoofs but does not rechew its food, is unclean for you. You are not to eat their flesh and you are not to touch their carcasses.

These you may eat of all the creatures that live in the water: Any that have fins and scales you may eat. 10 Any that do not have fins and scales you are not to eat. They are unclean for you.

11 Any clean bird you may eat. 12 But you are not to eat the following: the eagle, the black vulture, and the bearded vulture, 13 the red kite, the black kite, and falcons of every kind, 14 ravens and crows of every kind, 15 the eagle owl, the short-eared owl, the long-eared owl, all species of hawks, 16 the tawny owl, the fisher owl, the screech owl, 17 the white owl, and the scops owl, the osprey, 18 the stork and herons of every kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.[b] 19 Any swarming insect that flies is unclean for you. None of them are to be eaten. 20 Any clean winged creature you may eat.

21 Do not eat the carcass of any animal that is found dead. You may give it to the alien who resides in your town, and he may eat it or sell it to a foreigner, but you are a people who are set apart as holy for the Lord your God.

Do not boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 14:6 Or brings up the cud. The term describes an animal that rechews its food after it has swallowed it once and then regurgitated it or excreted it. This list is not limited to true ruminants.
  2. Deuteronomy 14:18 The precise identity of many of the birds is uncertain. Translations vary greatly. The inclusion of bats shows that the category is flyers.

You shall not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goats,[a] deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep. And any animal having a split hoof[b] and so a dividing of the hoof into two parts[c] and that chews the cud[d] among the animals[e]—that animal you may eat. Only these you may not eat from those chewing the cud[f] and from those having a division of the hoof:[g] the camel and the hare and the coney, because they chew the cud,[h] but they do not divide the hoof; they are therefore unclean for you. And also the pig because it has a division of the hoof[i] but does not chew the cud;[j] it is unclean for you; from their meat you shall not eat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.[k]

“This is what you shall eat from all that is in the water: everything[l] that has fins and scales[m] you may eat. 10 But anything that does not have[n] fins and scales, you may not eat, for it is unclean for you.

11 “All of the birds that are clean you may eat. 12 Now these are the ones you shall not eat any of them:[o] the eagle and the vulture and the short-toed eagle,[p] 13 and the red kite[q] and the black kite or any kind of falcon,[r] 14 and any kind of crow[s] according to its kind, 15 and the ostrich[t] and the short-eared owl and the seagull[u] and the hawk according to its kind, 16 the little owl and the great owl and the barn owl,[v] 17 and the desert owl[w] and the carrion vulture[x] and the cormorant,[y] 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;[z] they are unclean for you; you shall not eat them. 20 You may eat any clean bird.

21 “You shall not eat any carcass;[aa] you may give it to the alien who is in your towns,[ab] 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.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 14:4 Literally “small livestock of the sheep and a small livestock of the goats”
  2. Deuteronomy 14:6 Or “divides the hoof”
  3. Deuteronomy 14:6 Literally “a dividing cleft creating two hoofs”
  4. Deuteronomy 14:6 Literally “and that brings up the cud”
  5. Deuteronomy 14:6 Hebrew “animal”
  6. Deuteronomy 14:7 Literally “bringing up the cud”
  7. Deuteronomy 14:7 Literally “those having a division of the hoof divided”
  8. Deuteronomy 14:7 Literally “they bringing up of the cud”
  9. Deuteronomy 14:8 Literally “because a division of the hoof”
  10. Deuteronomy 14:8 Literally “but not a chewing cud”
  11. Deuteronomy 14:8 Literally “dead body”
  12. Deuteronomy 14:9 Literally “all of that”
  13. Deuteronomy 14:9 Literally “for it is fins and scales,” showing possession of these features
  14. Deuteronomy 14:10 Literally “all of that there is not for it,” showing lack of possession of these features
  15. Deuteronomy 14:12 Literally “from them”
  16. Deuteronomy 14:12 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)
  17. Deuteronomy 14:13 Various options are available: large bird, kite, red kite, glede, buzzard
  18. Deuteronomy 14:13 Literally “or the falcon according to its kind”; other options for falcon: bird, falcon, kite (others as carrion-bird), vulture, crow or raven, buzzard
  19. Deuteronomy 14:14 Or others translate as “raven”
  20. Deuteronomy 14:15 Literally “daughter of the ostrich”; others “desert owl”
  21. Deuteronomy 14:15 Or “long-eared owl”
  22. Deuteronomy 14:16 Or “white owl”
  23. Deuteronomy 14:17 Or “large bird” or “horned-owl”
  24. Deuteronomy 14:17 Or “large bird”
  25. Deuteronomy 14:17 Or “large bird,” or “fisher-owl”
  26. Deuteronomy 14:19 Literally “the swarmers of the flyers” or “all the swarms of things that fly”
  27. Deuteronomy 14:21 Or “corpse”
  28. Deuteronomy 14:21 Literally “gates”