Deuteronomy · Chapter 14

V. 1. Of the Lord-Whom therefore you must not disparage by unworthy or unbecoming practices. Ye shall not cut yourselves-Which were the practices of idolaters, both in the worship of their idols, in their funerals, and upon occasion of public calamities. Is not this like a parent’s charge to his little children, playing with knives, “Do not cut yourselves!” This is, the intention of those commands, which obliges us to deny ourselves. The meaning is, Do yourselves no harm! And as this also is, the design of cross providences, to remove from us those things by which we are in danger of doing ourselves harm.

Verse 1. Ye are the children of the Lord] The very highest character that can be conferred on any created beings; ye shall not cut yourselves, i.e., their hair, for it was a custom among idolatrous nations to consecrate their hair to their deities, though they sometimes also made incisions in their flesh.

Verse 1. Ye are the children of the Lord your God — Ye are not only the creatures, and the offspring, but the peculiar people, the worshippers, the servants, and those of you that are truly pious, the adopted children of Jehovah, the one living and true God, who is your God in covenant; and therefore you should not dishonour him, your heavenly Father, nor disparage yourselves, by unworthy or unbecoming practices, such as here follow; and whom you must not disobey. Ye shall not cut yourselves — This was the practice of idolaters, both in the worship of their idols and in their funerals, as also upon occasion of public calamities. For the dead — Through excessive sorrow for your dead friends, as if you had no hope of their happiness after death, 1 Thessalonians 4:13. See on Leviticus 19:28. These furious expressions of mourning for the dead subsist at this day in some of the eastern countries: see on Genesis 50:10. But nothing surely can be more unbecoming the sons of God and heirs of immortality than thus to sorrow like those who expect no life after this. Nor make any baldness between your eyes — On the fore part of your heads, (Leviticus 21:5,) just over the space that is between your eyes.

Verse 1. Ye shall not cut yourselves—for the dead. Jeremiah mentions the not paying these honours to the dead as a punishment: Jeremiah 16:6. It was once a general custom among the heathen, for the males and females to cut off their hair and bury it with a deceased father. The Israelites, it is evident, in adolatrous times, adopted almost every custom of the heathens. Hence, says the prophet, Jeremiah 48:37, when alluding to the destruction of his country by the Babylonians, “Every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.” The Arabs have long been noticed for cutting their flesh for the dead, and following the corpse with dreadful shrieks. The native Irish retain something of this custom still. About every two minutes, while following a corpse, the women raise a sudden and terrific yell; and in the intervals between the cries, they amuse themselves by looking at the shop-windows. The people of Otaheite carry these customs to great excess. See Wilson’s Missionary Voyage.

1. Ye shall not cut yourselves — Comp. Leviticus 19:28. It was the practice of some nations to make incisions on their faces or other parts of their bodies at funerals. There is reference to this custom in Jeremiah 16:6, and 41:5. Also in connexion with idolatrous religious services the heathen cut themselves with knives as though their gods were to be propitiated by human suffering.

THE ANIMALS THAT WERE TO BE EATEN AND THOSE THAT WERE PROHIBITED, 3-21.

Verse 2. Thou art a holy people — Since you have the honour to be separated to God as a peculiar people, by laws different from those of all other nations, it behooves you to act suitably to the dignity of your privileges, and to beware of defiling yourselves with any such heathenish rites or practices as are either impious or absurd. Any abominable thing — Unclean, and forbidden by me, which therefore should be abominable to you: see on Leviticus 11.

V. 3. Abominable-Unclean and forbidden by me, which therefore should be abominable to you.

3. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing — That is, any thing forbidden as unclean. Comp. Leviticus 11.

Verse 4. These are the beasts which ye shall eat] On Leviticus 11:1-47, I have entered into considerable detail relative to the clean and unclean animals there mentioned. For the general subject, the reader is referred to the notes on that chapter; but as there are particulars mentioned here which Moses does not introduce in Leviticus , it will be necessary to consider them in this place.

The ox] rwv shor: BOS, fifth order Pecora, of the genus MAMMALIA, species 41. This term includes all clean animals of the beeve kind; not only the ox properly so called, but also the bull, the cow, heifer, and calf. The sheep] hv seh: OVIS, fifth order Pecora, of the genus MAMMALIA, species 40; including the ram, the wether, the ewe, and the lamb. The goat] z[ az: CAPRA, fifth order Pecora, of the genus MAMMALIA, species 39; including the he-goat, she-goat, and kid. The words in the text, µybck hc seh chesabim, signify the lamb or young of sheep; and µyz[ hc seh izzim, the young or kid of goats: but this is a Hebrew idiom which signifies every creature of the genus, as vwna nb ben enosh and אדם בנ ben adam, son of man, signify any human being. See Psalm 144:3; Job 25:6.

The flesh of these animals is universally allowed to be the most wholesome and nutritive. They live on the very best vegetables; and having several stomachs, their food is well concocted, and the chyle formed from it the most pure because the best elaborated, as it is well refined before it enters into the blood. On ruminating or chewing the cud, see Clarke’s note on “Leviticus 11:3”.

4. Ox,… sheep,… goat — These seem to be named first as the ordinary domestic animals that were considered clean. Then comes the enumeration of the wild animals that could be eaten.

Verse 5. The hart] lya aiyal, the deer, according to Dr. Shaw: see Clarke’s note on “Deuteronomy 12:15”.

The roebuck] ybx tsebi, generally supposed to be the antelope, belonging to the fifth order Pecora, genus MAMMALIA, and species 38. It has round twisted spiral horns, hairy tufts on the knees, browses on tender shoots, lives in hilly countries, is fond of climbing rocks, and is remarkable for its beautiful black eyes. The flesh is good and well flavoured. The fallow deer] rwmjy yachmur, from rmj chamar, to be troubled, disturbed, disordered: this is supposed to mean, not the fallow deer, but the bubalus or buffalo, which is represented by Dr. Shaw, and other travellers and naturalists, as a sullen, malevolent, and spiteful animal, capricious, ferocious, and every way brutal. According to the Linnæan classification, the buffalo belongs to the fifth order Pecora, genus MAMMALIA, species bos. According to 1 Kings 4:23, this was one of the animals which was daily served up at the table of Solomon. Though the flesh of the buffalo is not considered very delicious, yet in the countries where it abounds it is eaten as frequently by all classes of persons as the ox is in England. The yachmur is not mentioned in the parallel place, Leviticus 11:1-47.

The wild goat] wqa akko. It is not easy to tell what creature is intended by the akko. Dr. Shaw supposed it to be a kind of very timorous goat, known in the East by the name fishtall and serwee, and bearing a resemblance both to the goat and the stag, whence the propriety of the name given it by the Septuagint and Vulgate, tragelaphus, the goat-stag; probably the rupicapra or rock-goat. The word is found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.

The pygarg] דישנ dishon. As this word is nowhere else used, we cannot tell what animal is meant by it. The word pygarg pugargov, literally signifies white buttocks, and is applied to a kind of eagle with a white tail; but here it evidently means a quadruped. It was probably some kind of goat, common and well known in Judea.

The wild ox] wat teo. This is supposed to be the oryx of the Greeks, which is a species of large stag. It may be the same with the bekker el wash, described by Dr. Shaw as “a species of the deer kind, whose horns are exactly in the fashion of our stag, but whose size is only between the red and fallow deer.” In Isaiah 51:20 a creature of the name of awt to is mentioned, which we translate wild bull; it may be the same creature intended above, with the interchange of the two last letters. The chamois] rmz zemer. This was probably a species of goat or deer, but of what kind we know not: that it cannot mean the chamois is evident from this circumstance, “that the chamois inhabits only the regions of snow and ice, and cannot bear the heat.”-Buffon. The Septuagint and Vulgate translate it the Camelopard, but this creature is only found in the torrid zone and probably was never seen in Judea; consequently could never be prescribed as a clean animal, to be used as ordinary food. I must once more be permitted to say, that to ascertain the natural history of the Bible is a hopeless case. Of a few of its animals and vegetables we are comparatively certain, but of the great majority we know almost nothing. Guessing and conjecture are endless, and they have on these subjects been already sufficiently employed. What learning, deep, solid, extensive learning, and judgment could do, has already been done by the incomparable Bochart in his Hierozoicon. The learned reader may consult this work, and, while he gains much general information, will have to regret that he can apply so little of it to the main and grand question. As I have consulted every authority within my reach, on the subject of the clean and unclean animals mentioned in the law, and have detailed all the information I could collect in my notes on Lev. xi., I must refer my readers to what I have there laid down.

Verse 5. The pygargs — A kind of goat. And the chamois — Hebrew, rmz, zemer, which Bochart takes for that kind of goat which is called in Latin Rupi-capra, or mountain-goat, from the Arabic zamara, to bound like a roe.

Ver. 5. The hart. Every species of the deer is implied. The wild ox is the buffalo, a native of all the continents. The pygarg is a species of the goat, but the chamois is difficult to ascertain. Bochart calls it the Rupicapra, or goat that skips on the rock, as a roe in the plains. It has a slender back, and upright horns, hooked at the end. Behind each ear there is a large orifice in the skin, the forehead is white, along the cheeks is a dusky bar, the rest of the body is of a deep brown colour. The tail is short, the hoofs are long and much divided. The difficulty of identifying what animal is here meant, arises from the Septuagint, and most other versions having rendered it the Camelopard. This latter animal has short straight horns covered with hair, in the forehead there is a tubercle about two inches high, resembling a third horn. The height from the crown of the head to the soles of the forefeet is usually seventeen feet, and from the top of the rump to the bottom of the hind feet only nine. The length of the body is seven, and from the withers to the loins only six feet.—Pennant. Hence, as this is a scarce animal, the chamois seems more likely to be the true reading.

5. The hart — The ordinary deer. The roebuck should be translated the gazelle. The pygarg — A species of antelope. A kind of deer called yahmar is found on Carmel. Lieutenant Conder says it resembles the English roebuck. — Tent Work in Palestine, vol. i, p. 173. The wild ox — Probably a kind of antelope or gazelle. Chamois — Very likely another species of antelope is referred to.

Ver. 6. Cheweth the cud. Oxen, sheep, &c. for want of the upper fore-teeth, cannot perfect the mastication of their food, and the operation would keep them too long upon their feet. Hence the Creator has provided them with an upper stomach, that reposing on the grass they may chew their food small at ease.

7. The hare, and the coney — The coney is thought to be the Hyrax Syriacus. It is about the size of a well-grown rabbit. It is said to be more common in the peninsula of Sinai than in Palestine. On all these prohibitions see notes on Leviticus 11.

9. Nearly the same as in Leviticus 11:9.

12. These… ye shall not eat — The birds prohibited here are as in Leviticus 11:13-23, except that the glede is added.

Verse 13. The vulture after his kind] The word had daah is improperly translated vulture Leviticus 11:14, and means a kite or glede. The word hyd daiyah in this verse is not only different from that in Leviticus , but means also a different animal, properly enough translated vulture. See Clarke’s note on “Leviticus 11:14”.

Verse 13. And the glede — Hebrew, harh, haraah, a bird of the vulture kind, which evidently has its name from its sharp sight. This is omitted in Leviticus.

Ver. 13. The glede. See Leviticus 11. Though it is not possible to identify some species of the animals and fowls mentioned by Moses; yet no difficulty arises to the conscience of a Jew, for the genus or class is well understood.

Ver. 19. Every creeping thing that flieth. The bat is here included, of which the English seems the smallest species. They bring forth young, and give suck like the mouse; but otherwise they approach the character of birds. They fly at night, when their enemies are asleep.

Verse 21. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.] Mr. Calmet thinks that this precept refers to the paschal lamb only, which was not to be offered to God till it was weaned from its mother; but see Clarke’s note on “Exodus 23:19”.

Verse 21. Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself — The blood being in it, rendered it unlawful to be eaten. Proselytes of the gate, not being obliged to observe these laws, or mere Gentiles, who might happen to be in their country, might eat such meat. But those who were termed proselytes of righteousness, that is, circumcised Gentiles, who had embraced the Jewish religion, were bound to abstain from such food as much as the native Jews.

21. Not eat… that dieth of itself — See Exodus 22:31, and Leviticus 22:8. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk — See Exodus 23:19.

V. 22. All the increase-This is to be understood of the second tithes, which seem to be the same with the tithes of the first year, mentioned Deuteronomy 14:28.

Verse 22. Thou shalt truly tithe] Meaning the second tithe which themselves were to eat, Deuteronomy 14:23, for there was a first tithe that was given to the Levites, out of which they paid a tenth part to the priests, Numbers 18:24-28; Nehemiah 10:37, 38. Then of that which remained, the owners separated a second tithe, which they ate before the Lord the first and second year; and in the third year it was given to the Levites and to the poor, Deuteronomy 14:28, 29. In the fourth and fifth years it was eaten again by the owners, and in the sixth year was given to the poor. The seventh year was a Sabbath to the land, and then all things were common, Exodus 23:10, 11, where see the notes, See Clarke “Exodus 23:11”, and see Ainsworth on this verse.

Verses 22, 23. Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed — There were three sorts of tithes to be paid from the people, besides those from the Levites to the priests; 1st, To the Levites for their maintenance, Leviticus 27:30-33; Numbers 18:21. These were to be eaten where they dwelt, (verse 31,) and therefore to be paid there. 2d, For the Lord’s feasts and sacrifices, to be eaten by the offerers at Jerusalem: these are here intended. 3d, Besides these two, there was to be every third year a tithe for the poor, to be eaten at their own dwellings, verses 28, 29. That thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God — That thou mayest not only be accustomed to the worship of Jehovah thy God, but mayest become truly pious. For the fear of God was taught in that place of his public worship, and the very presenting themselves before him was a good means to keep them in awe of him.

22. Tithe all the increase of thy seed — It seems taken for granted that the people are familiar with the earlier legislation concerning tithes. Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:26. Moses adds new requirements. It is generally conceded that this refers to what the Jewish tradition calls the second tithe, which was intended to furnish supplies for the sacred festivals. See CURTISS’S Levitical Priests, p. 39.

Verses 22, 23. Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed — There were three sorts of tithes to be paid from the people, besides those from the Levites to the priests; 1st, To the Levites for their maintenance, Leviticus 27:30-33; Numbers 18:21. These were to be eaten where they dwelt, (verse 31,) and therefore to be paid there. 2d, For the Lord’s feasts and sacrifices, to be eaten by the offerers at Jerusalem: these are here intended. 3d, Besides these two, there was to be every third year a tithe for the poor, to be eaten at their own dwellings, verses 28, 29. That thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God — That thou mayest not only be accustomed to the worship of Jehovah thy God, but mayest become truly pious. For the fear of God was taught in that place of his public worship, and the very presenting themselves before him was a good means to keep them in awe of him.

Ver. 23. The tithe of thy corn. See on Deuteronomy 26:12.

Verses 24, 25. When the Lord thy God hath blessed thee — Hath given thee so great an increase that the tenth thereof is more than thou canst carry to the sanctuary. Bind up the money in thy hand — That is, in a bag, to be taken in thy hand and carried with thee.

24. If the way be too long for thee — If they lived at so great a distance from the appointed place that it would be difficult to carry the prescribed tithes they were allowed to sell them and buy provision at the sanctuary.

V. 25. In thine hand-That is, in a bag to be taken into thy hand and carried with thee.

Verses 24, 25. When the Lord thy God hath blessed thee — Hath given thee so great an increase that the tenth thereof is more than thou canst carry to the sanctuary. Bind up the money in thy hand — That is, in a bag, to be taken in thy hand and carried with thee.

Verse 26. Or for strong drink] What the sikera or strong drink of the Hebrews was, see Clarke’s note on “Leviticus 10:9”. This one verse sufficiently shows that the Mosaic law made ample provision for the comfort and happiness of the people.

Verse 26. Thou shalt bestow that money, &c. — This was an injunction to the Israelites to use a part of their income in hospitality; to rejoice in the goodness of God, when they came before his presence, to acknowledge he was the author of all their blessings, and to gladden the hearts of the poor, the fatherless, and the widow, by entertaining them; thus imitating God’s goodness to themselves by acts of kindness to others. Thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God — The comfortable and cheerful using of what God hath given us, with temperance and sobriety, is really the honouring of God with it. Contentment, holy joy, and thankfulness, make every meal a religious feast.

V. 27. Thou shalt not forsake him-Thou shalt give him a share in such tithes or in the product of them.

Verses 27, 28. The Levite — thou shalt not forsake him — Thou shalt give him a share in such tithes, or in the product of them. At the end of three years — That is, in the third year, as it is expressed Deuteronomy 26:12. The same year — This is added to show that he speaks of the third year, and not of the fourth, as some might conjecture from the preceding phrase, at the end of three years.

V. 28. At the end of three years-That is, in the third year, as it is, expressed, Deuteronomy 26:12. The same year-This is added to shew that he speaks of the third year, and not of the fourth year, as some might conjecture from the phrase, at the end of three years.

Verses 27, 28. The Levite — thou shalt not forsake him — Thou shalt give him a share in such tithes, or in the product of them. At the end of three years — That is, in the third year, as it is expressed Deuteronomy 26:12. The same year — This is added to show that he speaks of the third year, and not of the fourth, as some might conjecture from the preceding phrase, at the end of three years.

28. At the end of three years — The tithe of the third year, which was to be bestowed upon the poor, was not paid in addition to the tithe which was on other years devoted to the sacred festival, but took the place of it.

Verse 29. And the Levite (because he hath no part nor inheritance] And hence much of his support depended on the mere freewill-offerings of the people. God chose to make his ministers thus dependent on the people, that they might be induced (among other motives) to labour for their spiritual profiting, that the people, thus blessed under their ministry, might feel it their duty and privilege to support and render them comfortable. DEUTERONOMY

Verse 29. The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow — For this tithe was not to be spent merely in feasting themselves, but for the relief of such as were in want, who otherwise might have been compelled to beg, or to serve strangers, and thereby be in danger of being perverted from their religion.