Deuteronomy 14

The Covenant Stipulations, Covenant Making at Shechem, Blessings and Cursings (Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 29:1 ).

In this section of Deuteronomy we first have a description of specific requirements that Yahweh laid down for His people. These make up the second part of the covenant stipulations for the covenant expressed in Deuteronomy 4:45 to Deuteronomy 29:1 and also for the covenant which makes up the whole book. They are found in chapters 12-26. As we have seen Deuteronomy 1:1 to Deuteronomy 4:44 provide the preamble and historical prologue for the overall covenant, followed by the general stipulations in chapters 5-11. There now, therefore, in 12-26 follow the detailed stipulations which complete the main body of the covenant. These also continue the second speech of Moses which began in Deuteronomy 5:1.

Overall in this speech Moses is concerned to connect with the people. It is to the people that his words are spoken rather than the priests so that much of the priestly legislation is simply assumed. Indeed it is remarkably absent in Deuteronomy except where it directly touches on the people. Anyone who read Deuteronomy on its own would wonder at the lack of cultic material it contained, and at how much the people were involved. It concentrates on their interests, and not those of the priests and Levites, while acknowledging the responsibility that they had towards both priests and Levites.

And even where the cultic legislation more specifically connects with the people, necessary detail is not given, simply because he was aware that they already had it in writing elsewhere. Their knowledge of it is assumed. Deuteronomy is building on a foundation already laid. In it Moses was more concerned to get over special aspects of the legislation as it was specifically affected by entry into the land, with the interests of the people especially in mind. The suggestion that it was later written in order to bring home a new law connected with the Temple does not fit in with the facts. Without the remainder of the covenant legislation in Exodus/Leviticus/Numbers to back it up, its presentation often does not make sense from a cultic point of view.

This is especially brought home by the fact that when he refers to their approach to God he speaks of it in terms of where they themselves stood or will stand when they do approach Him. They stand not on Sinai but in Horeb. They stand not in the Sanctuary but in ‘the place’, the site of the Sanctuary. That is why he emphasises Horeb, which included the area before the Mount, and not just Sinai itself (which he does not mention). And why he speaks of ‘the place’ which Yahweh chose, which includes where the Tabernacle is sited and where they gather together around the Tabernacle, and not of the Sanctuary itself. He wants them to feel that they have their full part in the whole.

These detailed stipulations in chapters 12-26 will then be followed by the details of the covenant ceremony to take place at the place which Yahweh has chosen at Shechem (Deuteronomy 27:0), followed by blessings and cursings to do with the observance or breach of the covenant (Deuteronomy 28:0).

I. INSTRUCTION WITH REGARD TO WORSHIP AND RIGHTNESS BEFORE YAHWEH (Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 16:17 ).

In this first group of regulations in Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 16:7 emphasis is laid on proper worship and rightness before Yahweh, looked at from the people’s point of view. They include:

· Regulations with regard to the Central Sanctuary as the one place where Yahweh is to be officially worshipped with emphasis on the people’s side of things and their participation. They are to worship there joyfully (Deuteronomy 12:0).

· Regulations with regard to avoidance of idolatry as it affects the people lest they lose their cause for joy (Deuteronomy 13:0).

· Regulations for the people with regard to ritual wholeness and cleanness so that they might reveal themselves as suited to worship joyfully in the place which Yahweh would choose (Deuteronomy 14:1-21).

· Regulations for the people with regard to tithing mainly ignoring levitical aspects (Deuteronomy 14:22-27). Here they were to share their joy with others who would thus be able to rejoice with them.

· Regulations with regard to poverty as a slur on Yahweh (Deuteronomy 14:28 to Deuteronomy 15:11). This was to be allayed by a special use of the tithe every third year and a release from debt every seventh year. To allow unrelieved poverty in the land would prevent their being able to approach Yahweh with joy and to enjoy His prosperity.

· Regulations with regard to Israelite Habiru bondsmen and bondswomen and how they were to be their treated (Deuteronomy 15:12-18). Again the emphasis is on generosity towards those whose need was greatest.

· Regulations with regard to firstlings, who represented their own relief from bondage, with the emphasis on their being Yahweh’s and thus to be royally treated, and to be eaten joyfully in the place which Yahweh would choose. The emphasis is on the people’s participation (Deuteronomy 15:19-23).

· Regulations with regard to the three main feasts, with emphasis on the fact that they must be eaten at the place which Yahweh will choose and that the last two of them must be celebrated joyfully, again with the emphasis on the people’s participation throughout (Deuteronomy 16:1-17).

But central to it all is the Central Sanctuary, the place where Yahweh sets His name. The place where He meets with His people, and they with Him, and the need for them to be in the right spirit so as to do so joyfully.

Chapter 14 The Call To Walk Worthy of Being His People.

This chapter covers the need for His people to remember who they were and to walk worthily of Him, and be fit to worship Him and come to the place that Yahweh has chosen to dwell in. They were not to follow customs that were tainted because of their significance. In their eating and their lives they were to avoid all that was ‘unclean’ (as defined) and might defile them, and all unsavoury practises. Their lives were to aim at what was positive. This was because they were His children, and a holy people set apart as His own treasured possession (Deuteronomy 14:3-21). Comparison should be made here with Leviticus 11:0. But while they must abjure all that was tainted they were especially to eat of a portion of the tithes, that which had been offered to Yahweh, as a holy feast before Him (Deuteronomy 14:22-29). That was good. Such times were to be the highlights of their year.

So the chapter ends with the feasting at the place chosen by Yahweh where He dwells among them, bringing us back to the thought of Deuteronomy 12:0 where this has previously been expressed. What is prescribed here is to be seen as closely involved with the sanctuary. In the end everything comes back to God. In the same way Deuteronomy 15:0 will end with reference to the firstlings, a further means of bringing us back to the feasting of Deuteronomy 12:0, and this is prior to the description of the three main feasts of Yahweh at the place which Yahweh will choose as a dwellingplace in Deuteronomy 16:0. Thus the whole section from Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 16:17 is built up around the worship of Yahweh in His presence at His chosen place and is important with respect to it.

Part of this passage is a clear representation of the ideas in Leviticus 11:0, but abbreviated in order not to be too turgid. It is in speech form. Consider how he refers to eating ‘clean winged creatures’ with no explanation, requiring the kind of explanation found in Leviticus 11:21-22, and avoids the more complicated aspects of uncleanness found there. This connection with a speech is also apparent from the way the theme is introduced.

Thus the first point in the part referring to cleanness is the general apodictic commandment that ‘you shall not eat any abominable thing’, which is then expanded on. The word ‘abominable’ is strong. It is used in Deuteronomy 7:25; Deuteronomy 12:31 of what is totally despicable. It is what God hates. Thus he will deal here with what is abominable, and defiles Yahweh’s holy people. But why are they abominable? Because they are ‘unclean’, they do not live within their proper spheres, they enter into and eat in unclean places, they nuzzle in the dust to which the serpent was condemned, they are scavengers and/or killers and eat the forbidden blood. They are totally unholy. They are not worthy of Yahweh. To eat them is to bring dishonour on His name and partake in their disreputableness. The principle inculcates a pure attitude towards life.

It should not surprise us if animals which nuzzled in the dust, and reptiles and creatures that lived in the dust and never rose above it were seen as especially unclean, and even more ‘creeping things’, for the dust is what man who dies will return to. It is the dust of death (Psalms 22:15; Psalms 22:29; Psalms 30:9; Psalms 104:29; Ecclesiastes 3:20; Daniel 12:2). To ‘cleave to the dust’ was considered to be the same as dying (Psalms 119:25). It was a world of death. And while the curse was partly relieved by God’s covenant with Noah as far as man was concerned (Genesis 9:21), which might explain why grazing land and arable land could be seen as ‘clean’ (it must have been seen as clean for it fed clean animals), it certainly did not remove the whole curse. Thorns and thistles are still man’s bain. The earth is still man’s adversary and seeks ever to return to the wild or to desert. And all this was closely linked with death (Genesis 3:19; Genesis 5:5), which was the final sentence.

The basic principle of what creatures are clean and unclean is fairly simple, although in detail it becomes more complicated. What is clean is what is wholesome. It does not grovel in the dust of death. It avoids unwholesome places. It eats hygienically. We must remember that it deals with the wilderness and with Palestine on the basis of a simple understanding of nature, and with general easily distinguishable principles. It was how things were in general seen. It was intended to be practical. It was not intended to cover worldwide natural science or be specific as to detail. Thus cattle and their equivalent eat grass and vegetation, and walk and feed in places less likely to be ‘unclean’ or to be infected by parasites and death. They keep to their proper sphere. In general all other animals do not.

Its purpose was not as a medical guide, although it would certainly help to prevent diseases, but was in order to increase Israel’s self esteem and sense of holiness so that they aimed high in their lives. They were being made aware that they were a holy people, who therefore only partook of what was superior and of what kept to its proper sphere, as they must themselves keep to their proper sphere. What mattered with regard to the differentiations was not the facts of natural science but how things were perceived. It was encouraging a pure attitude of mind.

Thus the animals which were clean were seen to chew extensively (translated ‘chewed the cud’) and had cloven feet. All knew that they ate what was clean and, limited by their feet, tended to go where it was clean. They did not eat blood. They were not predators. They did not nuzzle in the dirt. They avoided unclean places. The fish that were clean swam and ate in the flowing water, not at the bottom of the river. The birds that were clean flew and ate insects or corn. They did not delve in dirt and dust (compare Psalms 22:15; Psalms 22:29; Psalms 30:9; Psalms 104:29; Ecclesiastes 3:20; Daniel 12:2). They did not eat carrion or kill their own kind, or eat blood, or gather food from the mud. The insects that were clean leaped above the ground, not grovelled in it. They all illustrate the walk in wholesomeness of the people of God. They all kept to their ‘proper sphere’ and avoided the ‘dust of death’.

What follows from this is that they were least likely to cause disease, which was another good reason for avoiding them, but that was not the central point, although it probably played a part. It was not in that sense a divine indication that all other creatures were not edible, only that avoiding them would as a whole be to their benefit. Some were certainly known by them to have been closely connected with the worship of false gods, but the ox bull could be eaten and yet was connected with Canaanite religion (although that may simply have been overridden by custom). There may have been something of both these in the conception of uncleanness, but mainly the principle was one of wholesomeness and unwholesomeness.

This explains why the cleanness of animals is connected with Deuteronomy 14:1 which refers to deliberate disfigurements. Yahweh’s people were called on to be wholesome in every way, wholesome without and wholesome within.

Analysis based on the words of Moses:

a Sons of Yahweh your God you are. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead (Deuteronomy 14:1).

b For a holy people you are to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for His own possession, above all peoples that are on the face of the earth (Deuteronomy 14:2).

c You shall not eat any abominable thing (Deuteronomy 14:3).

d These are the beasts which you (ye) may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the ibex, and the antelope, and the chamois (Deuteronomy 14:4-5).

e And every beast that parts the hoof, and has the hoof cloven in two, and chews the cud, among the beasts, that may you eat (Deuteronomy 14:6).

f Nevertheless these you shall not eat, of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof cloven, the camel, and the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, they are unclean to you, and the swine, because he parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, he is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch (Deuteronomy 14:7-8).

f These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales you may eat, and whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean to you (Deuteronomy 14:9-10).

e Of all clean birds you may eat (Deuteronomy 14:11).

d But these are they of which you (ye) shall not eat: the griffon vulture, and the bearded vulture, and the osprey, and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind, and every raven after its kind, and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kind, the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl, and the pelican, and the black vulture, and the cormorant, and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat (Deuteronomy 14:12-18)

c And all winged creeping things are unclean to you: they shall not be eaten. Of all clean ‘winged creatures’ (or ‘birds’) you may eat (Deuteronomy 14:19-20).

b You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself: you may give it to the resident alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God (Deuteronomy 14:21 a).

a You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk (Deuteronomy 14:22).

Note with respect to ‘a’ that sons of Yahweh their God they were, and they were not to cut themselves, nor make any baldness between their eyes for the dead (religious rites), and in the parallel they were not to boil a kid in its mother’s milk (son of a goat it was). This parallel suggests that the boiling of a kid in its mother’s milk was also a religious rite. In ‘b’ Israel are a holy people to Yahweh their God, and Yahweh has chosen them to be a people for His own possession, above all peoples that are on the face of the earth and in the parallel they may not eat of anything that dies of itself (for they are His own possession), but they may give it to the resident alien who is within their gates, that he may eat it or they may sell it to a foreigner (the people on the face of the earth), for they are a holy people to Yahweh their God. In ‘c’ they may not eat any abominable thing and in the parallel all winged creeping things (which are abominable things - Leviticus 11:43; Ezekiel 8:10) are unclean to them. In ‘d’ is a list of beast that can be eaten and in the parallel a list of birds which cannot be eaten. In ‘e’ they may eat of all clean beasts and in the parallel they may eat of all clean birds. In ‘f’ there is a list of animals they may not eat, and in the parallel a list of fish that they may eat.