Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 14

You are the children of Jehovah. —This fact is made the foundation of all the laws of ceremonial and moral holiness in the Pentateuch, especially in the Book of Leviticus, where these laws are chiefly to be found.

You shall not cut yourselves. —The precept is repeated with little variation from Leviticus 19:28.

Any baldness between your eyes — i.e., apparently, “on your foreheads.” The word for baldness in this place is generally used for baldness on the back of the head.

For you are an holy people. —This verse is repeated from Deuteronomy 7:6, word for word, except the “and,” which is added here. In the former passage, the principle is made the ground for destroying all monuments of idolatry in the land of Israel. Here it is made the basis of outward personal dignity and purity.

This recalls the arrangement of the Book of Leviticus somewhat forcibly. The laws of ceremonial holiness stand first in that book, before the law of yearly atonement. Then follow the laws of moral holiness. But the principle and ground of all these laws is the same: You shall be holy, for I am holy, and you are Mine.

Nations. —Rather, peoples. The commonwealth of Israel and its institutions are contrasted with other states and their institutions.

You shall not eat any abominable thing. —That is, anything which Jehovah has pronounced abominable. The distinctions between His creatures were equally established and removed by the Creator. Yet, no doubt, they also had a sanitary purpose in relation to the chosen people.

These are the beasts that you shall eat. —The following passage to the end of Deuteronomy 14:8 answers to Leviticus 11:2-8, with this difference. The beasts that are to be eaten are specified in Deuteronomy. The exceptions are given in Leviticus.

The ox, the sheep, and the goat. —These, being sacrificial animals, naturally stand first. “The sheep and the goat” are literally, “a young one of the sheep or of the goats.” This may serve to illustrate Exodus 12:5: You shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats. According to the letter of the Law in Exodus, the Passover victim might be either lamb or kid. The word sêh, used there and in Genesis 22:7-8, is not distinctive of the species. This word is rendered “lamb” in several places in our English Version.

The wild goat. —In German the “Steinbock” is given as the equivalent for this creature. The pygarg (dîshon) is sometimes taken to be the buffalo. If all these creatures were then to be found in Palestine, there must have been far more uncleared land than there has been for many centuries past.