Deuteronomy 14 explained: Food, Mourning and Sharing the Harvest

No cutting for the dead (vv. 1-2)

Cutting the skin and shaving the front of the head were mourning customs among neighboring peoples, often tied to their rites for the dead. Because Israel is called the LORD's children and treasured people, they are told not to take these practices on.

Which land animals to eat (vv. 3-8)

Animals that both chew the cud and have split hooves, like cattle, sheep, goats, deer and antelope, are allowed, while the camel, rabbit, hyrax and pig are not. Several of the wild animals named are hard to identify with certainty today.

Fish, birds and insects (vv. 9-20)

Water creatures need fins and scales, and the forbidden birds are mostly birds of prey and scavengers, with the bat included. Many of the ancient Hebrew bird names are uncertain, which is why translations list different birds.

Dead animals and a young goat (v. 21)

Israelites were not to eat an animal that died on its own, but foreigners, who were not bound by this rule, could be given or sold it. The ban on cooking a young goat in its mother's milk may have targeted a pagan ritual, though scholars are unsure, and later Jewish practice built on it to keep meat and dairy apart.

A yearly harvest feast (vv. 22-27)

Each year a tenth of the harvest and the firstborn animals were to be eaten in a joyful family meal at the place the LORD would choose for worship, and those living far away could sell their produce and buy food and drink there. They were to include the Levites, the tribe set apart for religious service, who had no farmland of their own.

Every third year, feed the needy (vv. 28-29)

In the third year this tenth was stored in local towns so that Levites, foreigners, orphans and widows could eat their fill. How this fits with the tithe rules elsewhere in the Bible is debated, and later Jewish tradition counted more than one tithe.

Key verse: Deuteronomy 14:2

Where Christians differ

Christians, like other readers, differ on why the line between clean and unclean animals was drawn where it was: some see mainly health reasons, some see symbols teaching holiness, and others see a practical way of keeping Israel distinct from its neighbors.

Something to think about

What everyday habits, like what you eat, how you grieve or how you share, mark you as part of a particular group, and what do those habits mean to you?