Deuteronomy 14:20 — Word Study
WLCכָּל־ ע֥וֹף טָה֖וֹר תֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃
BSABut you may eatʼâkal▸ [any kind of, all types of] anykôl cleanṭâhôwr [pure, ceremonially acceptable] birdʻôwph [fowl, winged creature]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| כָּל־ | every | Noun common, masculine singular construct |
| ע֥וֹף | insect | Noun common, masculine singular absolute |
| טָה֖וֹר | clean | Adj |
| תֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃ | you will eat | Verb, Qal, imperfect second person masculine plural |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | But you may eat any clean bird. |
| KJV | But of all clean fowls ye may eat. |
| ASV | Of all clean birds ye may eat. |
| YLT | any clean fowl ye do eat. |
| WEB | Of all clean birds you may eat. |
| BBE | But all clean birds you may take. |
Where they part company is ע֥וֹף — see How Translations Differ.
One main clause with a noun phrase specifying what is permissible to eat. The structure is simple and direct.
3 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Cambridge & more — read them ›
clause
verbאָכַל
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Deuteronomy 14:20
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — Dietary Laws in Deuteronomygenerated
Deuteronomy 14:20 is part of a larger section outlining the dietary laws given to the Israelites, distinguishing between clean and unclean animals. These laws were meant to set the Israelites apart as a holy people and guide them in their daily lives. The surrounding verses elaborate on what is permissible to eat and what is not, emphasizing the importance of purity in their diet.
Cross References
The Key Word — טָהוֹר, tahorgenerated
The word טָהוֹר (tahor) means clean or pure, encompassing physical, ceremonial, and moral purity. It is used to describe animals that are acceptable for consumption according to the laws given to the Israelites.
This adjective is crucial in this verse as it specifies the type of bird that may be eaten, highlighting the importance of adhering to God's commandments regarding dietary practices.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, so the BSB is the wording every comparison below is made against.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The main verb of the verse is תֹּאכֵֽלוּ, you will eat, which governs the noun phrases that specify what is permissible to eat. The structure is straightforward, with the subject implied and the focus on the action of eating.
The Hebrew word order places emphasis on the clean birds, as it directly precedes the verb, indicating the importance of the dietary laws in the context of holiness.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
The Septuagint translates טָהוֹר as καθαρὸν (katharon), which means clean or pure. This choice aligns closely with the Hebrew meaning, emphasizing the concept of purity in dietary laws.
The word ע֥וֹף is rendered as πετεινὸν (petenon), which refers to flying creatures, further underscoring the focus on birds and their classification as clean or unclean.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Deuteronomy 14:20 states that the Israelites may eat any clean bird. This is part of the dietary laws given to them, which distinguish between clean and unclean animals. The laws are meant to guide their eating habits and maintain their holiness as a people.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
A clean bird is one that is permissible to eat according to the dietary laws set forth in the Torah, which are based on certain characteristics that make the bird suitable for consumption.
The dietary laws serve to set the Israelites apart as a holy people, guiding them in their relationship with God and emphasizing purity in their lives.
The Bible provides specific guidelines for determining which birds are clean, and these guidelines are traditionally interpreted by Jewish law.
The relevance of these dietary laws varies among different faith traditions; some continue to observe them while others interpret them differently in light of New Testament teachings.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- What does it mean to you to follow dietary laws or guidelines in your life?
- How can understanding the concept of cleanliness and purity in this verse apply to other areas of your life?
- In what ways do you think these dietary laws helped the Israelites maintain their identity as a people?
- How can you incorporate principles of purity and holiness into your daily life?
Commentators on this verse — 3 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Deuteronomy 14:20 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleBut of all clean fowls ye may eat. Even of all fowls, but those before excepted; Aben Ezra instances in the locust, as being a clean fowl, that might be eaten; and so the Targum of Jonathan is "every
Read John Gill on Deuteronomy 14 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryBut of all clean fowls ye may eat. No JFB commentary on this verse.
Read Robert Jamieson on Deuteronomy 14 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges20. Of all clean winged things ye may eat] R.V. fowl is misleading; the term winged covers both birds and flying insects and here probably refers only to the latter. Arabs and other eastern peoples eat locusts not only in time of famine; fried or made into cakes they are considered a delicacy (Burton, Pilgrimage, etc., ii. 117; Doughty, i. 472, ii. 245 f., 323; Musil, Ethn. Ber. 151). Nothing is said of reptiles (frogs may be supposed to fall under the class of unclean fishes, Deuteronomy 14:10). Leviticus 11:29 ff. counts as unclean, the weasel, mouse, lizards, chameleon and Leviticus 11:41 serpents. Arabs eat lizards, ‘very sweet meat,’ though some abhor them as serpents (Doughty, i. 70…
Read Cambridge on Deuteronomy 14 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
But you may eat any clean bird.
Of all clean birds you may eat.
But you may eat any clean bird.
You may eat any clean bird.
Tyndale line
But of all clean fowls ye may eat.
Of all clean birds ye may eat.
Of all clean fowls ye may eat.
But of all clean fowls ye may eat.
But of all cleane foules ye may eate.
Strictly literal
All clean fowls shall ye eat.
any clean fowl ye do eat.
any clean bird you eat.
All clean fowls may ye eat.
You may eat all clean flying things.
From the Latin
All that is clean, you shall eat.
Simplified
But you are allowed to eat any clean animal that has wings.
But all clean birds you may take.
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text is supported by the Samaritan Pentateuch, which agrees word for word with the Hebrew text. The Dead Sea Scrolls also reflect the same wording, although some words were supplied by an editor due to damage.
כָּל־ ע֥וֹף טָה֖וֹר תֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃
4 of the 4 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
כל עוף טהור תאכלו
Agrees with the Masoretic Text here, word for word.
[כל] [עוף] [טהור] [תאכלו]
nothing on the leather here — 4 supplied entire by an editor.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Deuteronomy 14:20
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
כֹּל (kol) means 'all' or 'the whole.' It can refer to totality, including every person or thing, and is often used with a following genitive to specify what is included. The term can also denote a broader sense of everything in existence or all circumstances of life. The lexicons do not show significant disagreement on its meanings.
כֹּל once כּוֹל n.m. the whole, all
with foll. gen. (as usually) the whole of, to be rendered, however, often in our idiom, to avoid stiffness, any or every
Absolutely:
without the art., all things, all
with the art. הַכֹּל
where the sense is limited by the context to things (or persons) just mentioned
in a wider sense, all, whether of all mankind or of all living things, the universe, or of all the circumstances of life (chiefly late)
base
H3605 כֹּל once כּוֹל the whole, all . with foll. gen. (as usually) the whole of, to be rendered, however, often in our idiom, to avoid stiffness, any or every
. Absolutely: . without the art., all things, all
. with the art. הַכֹּל . where the sense is limited by the context to things (or persons) just mentioned
. in a wider sense, all, whether of all mankind or of all living things, the universe, or of all the circumstances of life (chiefly late)
3605 kol kole
or (Jer. 33:8) kowl {kole}; from 3634; properly, the whole;
hence, all, any or every (in the singular only, but often in a
plural sense):--(in) all (manner, (ye)), altogether, any
(manner), enough, every (one, place, thing), howsoever, as
many as, (no-)thing, ought, whatsoever, (the) whole,
whoso(-ever).
see HEBREW for 03634
כֹּל (kol) — all.
1) all, the whole
1a) all, the whole of
1b) any, each, every, anything
1c) totality, everything
Aramaic equivalent: kol (כֹּל "all" H3606)
N-ms — Noun common · masculine singular constructHNcmsc
עוֹף (owph) refers to flying creatures, including birds and insects. It is derived from the root meaning to cover with wings, emphasizing the aspect of flight. The term encompasses various types of fowl and winged insects, and it is noted in the Aramaic as well. There are no significant disagreements among the lexicons regarding its meaning.
עוֹף 70 n.m. coll. flying creatures, fowls, insects
fowl, birds
winged insects
base
H5775 עוֹף flying creatures, fowls, insects . fowl, birds
. winged insects
5775 `owph ofe
from 5774; a bird (as covered with feathers, or rather as
covering with wings), often collectively:--bird, that flieth,
flying, fowl.
see HEBREW for 05774
עוֹף (oph) — bird.
1) flying creatures, fowl, insects, birds
1a) fowl, birds
1b) winged insects
Aramaic equivalent: oph (עוֹף "bird" H5776)
N-ms — Noun common · masculine singular absoluteHNcmsa
טָהוֹר (tahor) means clean or pure, covering physical, ceremonial, and moral senses. It is derived from the root word associated with H2891. The entries emphasize its application in various contexts, including animals and ethical purity.
טָהוֹר adj. clean, pure
base
H2889 טָהוֹר clean, pure
2889 tahowr taw-hore'
or tahor {taw-hore'}; from 2891; pure (in a physical,
chemical, ceremonial or moral sense):--clean, fair,
pure(-ness).
see HEBREW for 02891
טָהוֹר (ta.hor) — pure.
1) pure, clean
1a) clean (ceremonially-of animals)
1b) pure (physically)
1c) pure, clean (morally, ethically)
Adj — AdjHAamsa
klen (Anglo-Saxon cloene, "clear," "pure"): Rendering four Hebrew roots: bar, etc., "purify," "select," "make shining"; zakh, etc., "bright," "clean" "pure"; naqi, "free from," "exempt"; Taher, "clean," "pure," "empty," "bright" (?) the principal root, rendered "clean" 80 times (the King James Version); occurring in all its forms in various renderings about 200 times; also one Greek root, katharos, etc., akin to castus, "chaste," "free from admixture or adhesion of anything that soils, adulterates, corrupts" (Thayer's Lexicon). The physical, ritual, ethical, spiritual, figurative uses continually overlap, especially the last four.
1. Physical:
The physical use is infrequent: "Wash .... with snow water, and make my hands never so clean" (zakhakh, Job 9:30; figurative also); "clean provender" (hamits, the Revised Version (British and…
Clean
The various forms of uncleanness according to the Mosaic law are enumerated in Lev. 11-15; Num. 19. The division of animals into clean and unclean was probably founded on the practice of sacrifice. It existed before the Flood (Gen. 7:2). The regulations regarding such animals are recorded in Lev. 11 and Deut. 14:1-21.
The Hebrews were prohibited from using as food certain animal substances, such as (1) blood; (2) the fat covering the intestines, termed the caul; (3) the fat on the intestines, called the mesentery; (4) the fat of the kidneys; and (5) the fat tail of certain sheep (Ex. 29:13, 22; Lev. 3:4-9; 9:19; 17:10; 19:26).
אָכַל (akal) means 'to eat' and encompasses a wide range of meanings, including literal consumption by humans and animals, as well as figurative uses like devouring by fire or destruction. It can describe actions such as feeding or causing to eat, and it also appears in contexts of oppression and destruction. The verb has various forms, indicating different subjects and nuances.
אָכַל 806 vb. eat
Qal
eat, human subject
of beasts, birds, etc., eat, devour
fig. of fire, devour, consume
of sword, devour, slay
in genl., devour, consume, destroy
fig. of oppression, devour the poor
Niph.
be eaten by man
be devoured by fire, consumed
be wasted, destroyed, of flesh
Pu. be consumed
Hiph.
cause to eat, feed with
cause to devoure, obj. sword
base
H398 אָכַל eat .. eat, human subject
. of beasts, birds, etc., eat, devour
. fig. of fire, devour, consume
. of sword, devour, slay
. in genl., devour, consume, destroy
. fig. of oppression, devour the poor
. . be eaten by man
. be devoured by fire, consumed
. be wasted, destroyed, of flesh
. be consumed
. . cause to eat, feed with
. cause to devoure, obj. sword
398 'akal aw-kal'
a primitive root; to eat (literally or figuratively):--X at
all, burn up, consume, devour(-er, up), dine, eat(-er, up),
feed (with), food, X freely, X in...wise(-deed, plenty), (lay)
meat, X quite.
אָכַל (a.khal) — to eat.
1) to eat, devour, burn up, feed
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to eat (human subject)
1a2) to eat, devour (of beasts and birds)
1a3) to devour, consume (of fire)
1a4) to devour, slay (of sword)
1a5) to devour, consume, destroy (inanimate subjects - ie, pestilence, drought)
1a6) to devour (of oppression)
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to be eaten (by men)
1b2) to be devoured, consumed (of fire)
1b3) to be wasted, destroyed (of flesh)
1c) (Pual)
1c1) to cause to eat, feed with
1c2) to cause to devour
1d) (Hiphil)
1d1) to feed
1d2) to cause to eat
1e) (Piel)
1e1) consume
Aramaic equivalent: a.khal (אֲכַל "to devour" H0399)
V-Qal-Imperf-2mp — Verb · Qal · imperfect second person masculine pluralHVqi2mp