Deuteronomy 14:21

You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Moses addresses Israel regarding dietary regulations and covenant identity as the community prepares to enter the Promised Land. The commands function as practical markers of separation for the gathered people.

The words — נְבֵלָה (Nevelah) means carcass, and לַגֵּר (laGer) translates to to the sojourner. These terms define the exact boundary between forbidden consumption and permitted external transfer.

The thread — The prohibition against cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk recurs in Exodus 23:19 and Exodus 34:26. The restriction on eating carcasses parallels Leviticus 22:8, which bars the priestly class from consuming anything found dead or torn.

Why it lands — The text commands Israel to refuse carcasses while permitting their sale or gift to resident foreigners. It requires the community to maintain ritual distinctiveness through specific dietary boundaries that visibly separate them from surrounding nations.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

Cross-references

Exodus 23:19 Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Exodus 34:26 Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
Leviticus 22:8 He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, which would make him unclean. I am the LORD.
Deuteronomy 14:2 for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Leviticus 17:15 And any person, whether native or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening; then he will be clean.
Leviticus 19:33 When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him.
Daniel 12:7 And the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by Him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, and times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people has finally been shattered, all these things will be completed.”
Acts 15:20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
Ezekiel 4:14 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”