Deuteronomy 14:21
But whatsoever is dead of itself, eat not thereof. Give it to the stranger, that is within thy gates, to eat, or sell it to him: because thou art the holy people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.
Open Deuteronomy 14:21 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quidquid autem morticinum est, ne vescamini ex eo. Peregrino, qui intra portas tuas est, da ut comedat, aut vende ei : quia tu populus sanctus Domini Dei tui es. Non coques hædum in lacte matris suæ.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from Deuteronomy 14:20
- Πᾶν θνησιμαῖον οὐ φάγεσθε· τῷ παροίκῳ τῷ ἐν ταῖς πόλεσίν σου δοθήσεται καὶ φάγεται, ἢ ἀποδώσῃ τῷ ἀλλοτρίῳ· ὅτι λαὸς ἅγιος εἶ Κυρίῳ τῷ θεῷ σου. οὐχ ἑψήσεις ἄρνα ἐν γάλακτι μητρὸς αὐτοῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- לֹ֣א תֹאכְל֣וּ כָל נְ֠בֵלָה לַגֵּ֨ר אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶ֜יךָ תִּתְּנֶ֣נָּה וַאֲכָלָ֗הּ א֤וֹ מָכֹר֙ לְנָכְרִ֔י כִּ֣י עַ֤ם קָדוֹשׁ֙ אַתָּ֔ה לַיהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ לֹֽא תְבַשֵּׁ֥ל גְּדִ֖י בַּחֲלֵ֥ב אִמּֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Of itself, or by suffocation.
Stranger, who has not embraced your religion. (Menochius)
Hence it is inferred, that the Jews might keep unclean animals, and sell them; as they did not defile till they were dead. (Jansenius)
If they had been unclean by nature, they could not have been sold, which shews that this ceremonial law regarded only the Jewish religion.
Dam. All appearance of cruelty must be avoided. Christ, who is signified by the kid, on account of his assuming our sinful nature, shall not be slain in his infancy. (St. Thomas Aquinas, i. 2. q. 102. a. 6.) (Worthington).
Some take this prohibition literally, and extend it to calves and lambs. The Arabs use milk in almost all their ragouts. (Roger. ii. 2.)
Others think that kids must not be eaten, while they are as yet too tender, Qui plus lactis habet quam sanguinis. (Juvenal, Sat. xi.)
But we believe that God forbids the paschal lamb or kid to be offered while it sucks. It must be of a competent age, of one year, Exodus xii. 5., and xxiii. 19. Other victims would do if they were only eight days old, Leviticus xxii. 27. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter XVIII. The Mosaic Law the Fountain of All Ethics, and the Source from Which the Greeks Drew Theirs
What more? The Lord enjoins to ease and raise up the beasts of enemies when labouring beneath their burdens; remotely teaching us not to indulge in joy at our neighbour’s ills, or exult over our enemies; in order to teach those who are trained in these things to pray for their enemies. For He does not allow us either to grieve at our neighbour’s good, or to reap joy at our neighbour’s ill. And if you find any enemy’s beast straying, you are to pass over the incentives of difference, and take it back and restore it. For oblivion of injuries is followed by goodness, and the latter by dissolution of enmity. From this we are fitted for agreement, and this conducts to felicity. And should you suppose one habitually hostile, and discover him to be unreasonably mistaken either through lust or anger, turn him to goodness. …