Deuteronomy 14

1 cut yourselves, etc. These barbarous and superstitious customs are still practised among many heathen nations.

4 ye shall eat. This list of clean and unclean animals differs from that in Lev. xi., where general rules are laid down, illustrated by a few examples; whereas, in this passage, the object was to enumerate the principal animals to be eaten or avoided. These precepts concerning food plainly belonged only to the Jews, and were not intended to be of perpetual and universal obligation: see Acts x. 15; 1 Tim. iv. 4.

5 pygarg. Heb., “dishon.” The ibex.

15 the owl, etc. Rather, “the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew” (R.V.).

16 the swan. Rather, “the horned owl” (R.V.). Moffatt translates “the water-hen.”

18 the lapwing. “The bittern.”

21 thou shalt give it unto the stranger. Uncircumcised strangers, who merely resided among the Israelites, while required to conform to certain general regulations, were exempt from others purposely to make a distinction between them and the covenant-people.

27 not forsake him. But invite him to your feast. See xii. 18.

28 all the tithe. For two years out of three the tithe-produce might be sold, and the money spent on offerings purchased at the sanctuary and consumed there; but in the third year the produce must be preserved for the use of the Levites, and the needy at home. This provided for the wants of the non-producing classes.