Deuteronomy 14

This chapter belongs to the detailed statutes that make up Deuteronomy 12–26. Whereas the preceding chapter, Deuteronomy 13, deals with false prophets and those who entice others to idolatry, this chapter addresses the set-apart life the holy people were to live in their daily affairs.

Outline

• Verses 1–2 Because the Israelites are children of the LORD and a holy people, they are not to cut themselves or shave the hair above the forehead for the dead.
• Verses 3–8 Animals that part the hoof and chew the cud may be eaten. The camel, the hare, the coney, and the swine are declared unclean.
• Verses 9–10 Of the creatures that live in the waters, only those with fins and scales may be eaten.
• Verses 11–20 Birds that may not be eaten are listed, including the eagle, the kite, the raven, and the bat, and creatures that both fly and creep are declared unclean.
• Verse 21 Anything that dies of itself is not to be eaten; it may instead be given to the stranger or sold to an alien. A kid is not to be boiled in its mother's milk.
• Verses 22–27 Each year the tithe of the produce of the land is to be eaten with one's household at the place the LORD chooses. If the journey is too far, the tithe may be exchanged for money, which is then used to buy food there. The Levite is not to be forsaken.
• Verses 28–29 Every third year, a tenth of that year's produce is to be stored within the towns so that the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow may eat.

Key Verses

• Deuteronomy 14:2 "The LORD hath chosen thee... above all the nations that are upon the earth." The regulations of the entire chapter are grounded in the people's holy status.
• Deuteronomy 14:23 "That thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always." The purpose of the tithe is to learn to fear God.
• Deuteronomy 14:29 "Shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied." The tithe is directed toward caring for the landless and the vulnerable.

People and Places

• The Levites are the tribe that has no part or inheritance, that is, no allotted land, among Israel.
• The stranger is an outsider residing within the towns; the fatherless and the widow are mentioned alongside the stranger as neighbors in need of care.
• The alien is a person outside Israel and appears as one to whom an animal that has died of itself may be sold.
• "The place which the LORD shall choose" is not named in the text. In later times it was understood to be Jerusalem.

Points for Reflection

• The dietary laws overlap with Leviticus 11. For some birds and animals, the referents of the Hebrew names are uncertain, so the names vary among translations.
• The regulation concerning the kid in verse 21 also appears in Exodus 23. Jewish tradition extends it into a rule against eating meat and milk together, but the text itself speaks only of a kid and its mother's milk.
• In the New Testament, Mark 7:18–19, Peter's vision in Acts 10, and Acts 15:28–29 bear on the dietary laws. Most Protestants hold that these regulations are not binding on Christians. The Seventh-day Adventist Church observes abstinence from unclean meats as a principle of health and faith.
• Jewish tradition identifies the tithes in this chapter as the "second tithe" and the "poor tithe," distinct from the Levites' tithe in Numbers 18. Scholars are divided over whether the two passages refer to the same institution.

In the Korean Church

The chapter is cited together with Malachi 3:8–10 in sermons and teaching on the tithe. In the tithing debate, it is sometimes used as a point of comparison with present-day tithing practice, since those who brought the tithe ate it themselves and shared it with their poor neighbors.