Deuteronomy 14
Big idea: The chapter opens with an identity statement — you are the children of Yahweh your God — and everything that follows is what belonging looks like at the table. Mourning practices that gash the body are out; the clean and unclean lists are restated in shorter form. Then the tithe, and it is surprisingly generous: bring a tenth to the chosen place and eat it there before Yahweh; and if the journey is too long, sell it, carry the money, and buy whatever your soul desires when you arrive — cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink — and eat there and rejoice, you and your household. And every third year the tithe stays home, stored in your gates, so the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow may come and eat and be satisfied.
Chapter 14's third-year tithe feeds those with no land. Chapter 15 goes further: cancel their debts and set them free.
14:1–8 — You are the children of Yahweh your God
The food laws are introduced by an identity, not a rule: you are the CHILDREN of Yahweh your God. What follows immediately is a ban on mourning practices — gashing the skin, shaving the forehead for the dead — so the first application of being God's children is how you grieve. Only then does the diet begin, and it is framed as belonging rather than hygiene.
1 You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2 For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. 3 You shall not eat any abominable thing. 4 These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois. 6 Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof split in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 7 Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof split: the camel, the hare, and the rabbit. Because they chew the cud but don’t part the hoof, they are unclean to you. 8 The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat their meat. You shall not touch their carcasses.
14:9–21 — Fins and scales, birds, and what dies of itself
Water, air, and then a rule about carrion that says something unexpected. Meat that died of itself may be given to the resident foreigner or sold to an outsider — so this is not a claim that the food is poisonous. It is a claim about who Israel is, and verse 21 says so in the middle of the sentence: FOR YOU ARE A HOLY PEOPLE.
9 These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat whatever has fins and scales. 10 You shall not eat whatever doesn’t have fins and scales. It is unclean to you. 11 Of all clean birds you may eat. 12 But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, 13 the red kite, the falcon, the kite of any kind, 14 every raven of any kind, 15 the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk of any kind, 16 the little owl, the great owl, the horned owl, 17 the pelican, the vulture, the cormorant, 18 the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. 19 All winged creeping things are unclean to you. They shall not be eaten. 20 Of all clean birds you may eat. 21 You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
14:22–29 — Eat it there and rejoice — and every third year
The tithe with a surprise in it. If the journey is too long, convert the produce to money — and then spend it at the sanctuary on whatever your soul desires, including strong drink. The stated purpose of the whole exercise is that you may LEARN TO FEAR God, and the method prescribed is a feast. Then every third year the tithe stays home and feeds four kinds of people with no land.
22 You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes out of the field year by year. 23 You shall eat before Yahweh your God, in the place which he chooses to cause his name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always. 24 If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it because the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to set his name there is too far from you, when Yahweh your God blesses you, 25 then you shall turn it into money, bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose. 26 You shall trade the money for whatever your soul desires: for cattle, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you. You shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. 27 You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 28 At the end of every three years you shall bring all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall store it within your gates. 29 The Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, as well as the foreigner living among you, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).