Deuteronomy 14:1-21

Read this passage and open each verse for the full verse feed and commentary tools.

Clean and Unclean Animals

1“You are sons of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave a bald spot above your forehead for the dead. 2For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

3“You shall not eat any detestable thing. 4These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6And any animal that has a divided hoof and has its hoofs split in two, and chews the cud, among the animals, that animal you may eat. 7However, you are not to eat these among the ones that chew the cud, or among those that have the hoof divided in two: the camel, the rabbit, and the rock hyrax, for though they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are unclean to you. 8And the pig, because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, nor touch their carcasses.

9“These you may eat of everything that is in the water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, 10but anything that does not have fins and scales, you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

11“You may eat any clean bird. 12But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, 13and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, 14and every raven in its kind, 15and the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, and the hawk in their kinds, 16the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, 17the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, 18the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. 19And all the swarming insects with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. 20You may eat any clean bird.

21“You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger who is in your town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a stranger; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.