Deuteronomy 14

Deuteronomy 14:3

Clement of Alexandria: Among the Jews, frugality was made a matter of precept by a very wise dispensation of the law. The Educator forbade them the use of innumerable things. He explained the reasons, the spiritual ones hidden, the material ones obvious, but all of which they trusted. Some animals [were forbidden] because they were [not] cloven-footed; others, because they did not ruminate their food; a third class, because they, alone among all the fish of the seas, had no scales; until finally there were only a few things left fit for food. And even of those he permitted them to touch, he placed a prohibition on the ones found dead or offered to idols or strangled. They could not even touch them. He imposed upon them a contrary course of action until the inclination engendered by habits of easy living be broken, because it is difficult for one who indulges in pleasures to keep himself from returning to them. — The Instructor Book 2

Deuteronomy 14:4

Ambrose of Milan: And therefore, according to the Law, clean animals have horns: for the Law is spiritual. For those who are able to repel the allurements of this world with the word of God and the observance of virtue, they seem to be fortified with horns like the helmets of their own heads. And rightly, the power of an astonishing speech is said to be like a horn, which ignites the good soldiers of Christ to battle so that we may snatch the spoils from the enemy, the devil. Therefore, we are on the battlefield, and we see many of us held captive in the enemy’s camp: they must be freed from the heavy yoke of slavery. — On the Blessings of the Patriarchs

Deuteronomy 14:28

Augustine of Hippo: After three years you will separate all the tithes of your fruits; in that year you will put this in your cities; and the Levite shall come, because he has no part nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are in your cities and shall eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works you do. It does not say that he eats with his own from this tithe. And that is why he commands that it be given to the Levites and the strangers, and to the orphans and the widows. But the subject is not clearly expressed, since this tithe is not distinguished from that which was ordered to be eaten with the Levites in the place that the Lord chose for his temple. In the translation made directly from Hebrew we find this expressed more clearly. The text says: In the third year you will separate another tithe from all the things that are born in that time, and you will put it inside your doors. And then the Levite, who has no other part or possession with you, and the stranger, and the orphan and the widow, who are inside your gates, will come and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless in all works of your hands that you make. In the first place, what is said at the beginning is clearer: In the third year. This means that there is an intermediate year between one and the other. On the other hand, in the Seventy, it is said: After three years. And for that, it is not known if they mean that there must be three intermediate years, so that will be done every five years. In addition, when the text says: And you will separate another tithe, it already shows clearly that it is not the tithe that should eat the same that offers it with theirs and with the Levites in the place that the Lord has chosen. With regard to this other tithe, it has been ordered to put it inside the doors themselves, and not to take it to that place where the Lord wanted to be invoked. It says: And the Levite will come, who has no other part or possession with you, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow, who are inside your gates and will eat it. From this it is clear that God did not want this tithe to be common, for the one who offers it and for those to whom it is given, but ordered that it be given only to those who did not have anything else, among whom is mentioned mainly the Levite After seven years you will remission (Deuteronomy 15,1). Here it appears clearly why before it was also said: After three years. Indeed, the Lord also did not want these seven years to be intermediate. He ordered to pay the tithe every year, as if it were the observation of a Sabbath of years. 21 (Deuteronomy 15.9). Beware that there should not arise in your heart a hidden word, an iniquity, saying, “The seventh year is coming, the year of remission,” and you look with a bad eye on your poor brother and give him nothing; He will cry against you to the Lord and there will be a great sin in you. This is properly called a hidden word, because no one who could have thought this would dare to say that we should not lend anything to a homeless person as the year of remission approaches, when God, in order for mercy to be practiced, commanded both things: to lend a thing when one needs it and to forgive it the year of the remission. Because how can you forgive mercifully in that year in which you have to forgive, if you think cruelly that you should not give anything at that time when you have to give something? — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 20 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)