Deuteronomy 14:3-21
New American Standard Bible
3 “(A)You shall not eat any detestable thing. 4 (B)These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 [a]the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 And any animal that has a divided hoof and has its hoofs split in two, and [b]chews the cud, among the animals, [c]that animal you may eat. 7 However, you are not to eat these among the ones that [d]chew the cud, or among those that have the hoof divided in [e]two: the camel, the [f]rabbit, and the rock hyrax, for though they [g]chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are unclean to you. 8 And the pig, because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, nor touch their carcasses.
9 “These you may eat of everything that is in the water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, 10 but anything that does not have fins and scales, you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
11 “You may eat any clean bird. 12 But (C)these are the ones that you shall not eat: the [h]eagle and the vulture and the [i]buzzard, 13 and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, 14 and every raven in its kind, 15 and the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, and the hawk in their kinds, 16 the little owl, the [j]great owl, the white owl, 17 the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, 18 the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. 19 And all the swarming insects with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. 20 You may eat any clean bird.
21 “(D)You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger who is in your [k]town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a stranger; for you are (E)a holy people to the Lord your God. (F)You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
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- Deuteronomy 14:5 Exact identification of these animals is uncertain
- Deuteronomy 14:6 Lit brings up
- Deuteronomy 14:6 Lit it
- Deuteronomy 14:7 Lit bring up
- Deuteronomy 14:7 Lit a cleaving
- Deuteronomy 14:7 Or hare
- Deuteronomy 14:7 Lit bring up
- Deuteronomy 14:12 Or vulture
- Deuteronomy 14:12 Or black vulture
- Deuteronomy 14:16 Or great horned owl
- Deuteronomy 14:21 Lit gates
Deuteronomy 14:3-21
Common English Bible
Dietary laws
3 Don’t eat any detestable thing. 4 Here’s a list of animals you are allowed to eat: ox, sheep, goat, 5 deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep. 6 You are also allowed to eat any animal with a divided hoof—the hoof being divided into two parts—and that rechews food among the various kinds of animals. 7 However, here’s a list of animals that either rechew food or have hooves divided in two parts that you are not allowed to eat:
the camel, the hare, and the rock badger—because these rechew food but don’t have divided hoofs, they are off-limits for you;
8 and the pig—because it has a divided hoof but doesn’t rechew food, it’s off-limits for you.
You may not eat these animals’ meat, and you must not touch their carcasses.
9 Here’s a list of the water animals you are allowed to eat: you can eat anything that has fins and scales. 10 But you aren’t allowed to eat anything that lacks scales or fins. These are off-limits for you.
11 You are allowed to eat any clean bird. 12 Here’s a list of those you are not allowed to eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, 13 the red kite, the black kite, and any kind of bird of prey, 14 any kind of raven, 15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the seagull, any kind of hawk, 16 the small owl and the large owl, the water hen, 17 the desert owl, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, 18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.[a]
19 Also, all winged insects are off-limits for you. They are not to be eaten. 20 Any clean winged creature can be eaten, however.
21 You must not eat any decayed animal flesh because you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You can give decayed animal flesh to the immigrants who live in your cities, and they can eat it; or you can sell it to foreigners.
Don’t cook a lamb in its own mother’s milk.
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- Deuteronomy 14:18 The species of many of the birds in 14:12-18 is uncertain.
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