13.13 Scoundrels, lit. “sons without worth,” “outlaws” who defy legitimate authority (cf. Judg 19.22; 20.13; 1 Sam 2.12).
13.14 Inquire could connote oracular consultation (cf. Judg 20.18, 23; Josh 7.13–21) but the clear purport of this Deuteronomic usage is judicial initiative to gather empirical evidence (see 17.4, 9; 19.18; cf. Josh 22.10–34).
13.15–17 The apostate town becomes anathema, like the former nations whose practices it assimilated (12.29–30); thus a comprehensive ban must be implemented against it, lest Israel as a whole incur the wrath of God (20.16–18; cf. 7.25–26).
13.16 Whole burnt offering, a sacrificial conflagration (33.10; Lev 6.22–23; 1 Sam 7.9; cf. Isa 34.6–7). Perpetual ruin, like Ai (Josh 8.28; cf. Jer 49.2).
DEUTERONOMY 14
Pagan Practices Forbidden
1You are children of the LORD your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead. 2For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; it is you the LORD has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Clean and Unclean Foods
3You shall not eat any abhorrent thing. 4These are the animals 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. 6Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof cleft in two, and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 7Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cleft you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you. 8And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.
9Of all that live in water you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. 10And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
11You may eat any clean birds. 12But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, 13the buzzard, the kite of any kind; 14every raven of any kind; 15the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; 16the little owl and the great owl, the water hen 17and the desert owl,a the carrion vulture and the cormorant, 18the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat.b 19And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. 20You may eat any clean winged creature.
21You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God.
You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
Regulations concerning Tithes
22Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field. 23In the presence of the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. 24But if, when the LORD your God has blessed you, the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the LORD your God will choose to set his name is too far away from you, 25then you may turn it into money. With the money secure in hand, go to the place that the LORD your God will choose; 26spend the money for whatever you wish—oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your household rejoicing together. 27As for the Levites resident in your towns, do not neglect them, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you.
28Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year, and store it within your towns; 29the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.
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a Or pelican
b Identification of several of the birds in verses 12-18 is uncertain
14.1–21 Select rules pertaining to Israel’s comportment as the Lord’s holy people.
14.1 Children of the LORD is language elsewhere attested especially in prophetic contexts treating Israel’s filial waywardness (32.5–6, 19–20; Ps 103.13; Isa 1.2, 4; 30.1; Jer 3.14, 19, 22; cf. Jer 31.9, 20; Hos 1.10; 11.1–4). Lacerate, shave…forelocks. Self-laceration and tonsure are perhaps prohibited because they were associated with pagan rites (cf. Lev 19.27–28; 21.5; 1 Kings 18.28; Jer 16.6–7; 41.4–5; 47.5; Am 8.10).
14.2 A restatement of covenantal integrity or “holiness” based on Ex 19.5–6 (cf. 7.6) introduces a series of dietary rules.
14.3 Abhorrent in the general prohibition makes foods excluded from Israel’s diet a matter of the Lord’s discretion (see note on 7.25–26; cf. Ex 8.26).
14.4–20 The basic categories of land animals (vv. 4–8), fish (vv. 9–10), and flying creatures (vv. 11–20) reflect the familiar taxonomy of the created order (Gen 1.20–25; 9.2–3). A common antecedent tradition as well as some mutual influence at a late stage of textual formation best account for the detailed similarities and differences between this classification and its counterpart in Lev 11.2–23. Some of the species identifications, especially of the birds, remain uncertain.
14.21 Anything that dies of itself, i.e., carrion or the carcass of an otherwise edible animal from which the blood was not drained (cf. 12.16, 22–27; with Ex 22.31; Lev 17.15; 22.8; Ezek 44.31). The issue is ritual purity, not health per se; hence the affected meat could be eaten by those who did not belong to the sacral community (resident aliens or a foreigner). The old prohibition against cooking a kid in its mother’s milk (Ex 23.19; 34.26) concludes the series of rules. The original significance of this prohibition is a matter of some dispute. Some see it as proscribing Canaanite religious practices, others as being directed against the unnatural and callous treatment of animals. The later Jewish dietary practice of not mixing meat and dairy products is based on this law.
14.22–29 The tithe probably originated as a 10 percent tax on agricultural produce (all the yield of your seed), usually paid in kind to the land’s sovereign or to designated government officials (cf. Gen 14.20; 28.22; Lev 27.30–33; Num 18.21–32; 1 Sam 8.15, 17; Am 4.4). Here the ancient practice is roughly adapted to the circumstances of unification of worship.
14.23 As a dwelling for his name. See notes on 12.5; 12.11. The three annual pilgrimage festivals (see 16.16–17) are presumably meant as primary occasions for presentation of both agricultural tithes and firstlings of livestock (see also 12.17; 15.19–23).
14.24–27 Emphasis again falls on promoting inclusive celebrations (cf. note on 12.7); important social, economic, and administrative implications are ignored (cf. 2 Chr 31.2–19; Neh 12.44; Mk 11.15; Jn 2.13–14).
14.28–29 Provision, however, is added for local storage and distribution of tithes from produce harvested every third year, to sustain dispersed levitical clans as well as to provide for others in need of charity (cf. 26.12–15; Ex 22.21–24).
DEUTERONOMY 15
Laws concerning the Sabbatical Year
1Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts.2And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the LORD’s remission has been proclaimed. 3Of a foreigner you may exact it, but you must remit your claim on whatever any member of your community owes you. 4There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the LORD is sure to bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, 5if only you will obey the LORD your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today. 6When the LORD your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.<
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7If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward your needy neighbor. 8You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. 9Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, “The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,” and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the LORD against you, and you would incur guilt. 10Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”
12If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is solda to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free. 13And when you send a male slaveb out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. 14Provide liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine press, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the LORD your God has blessed you. 15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; for this reason I lay this command upon you today. 16But if he says to you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, 17then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his earlobe into the door, and he shall be your slavec forever.
You shall do the same with regard to your female slave.d
18Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons, because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of hired laborers; and the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.
The Firstborn of Livestock
19Every firstling male born of your herd and flock you shall consecrate to the LORD your God; you shall not do work with your firstling ox nor shear the firstling of your flock. 20You shall eat it, you together with your household, in the presence of the LORD your God year by year at the place that the LORD will choose. 21But if it has any defect—any serious defect, such as lameness or blindness—you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God; 22within your towns you may eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, as you would a gazelle or deer. 23Its blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
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a Or sells himself or herself
b Heb him
c Or bondman
d Or bondwoman
15.1–18 This remarkable revision of older laws (Ex 21.2–11; 22.25; 23.10–11) seeks to strengthen procedures for redressing economic imbalances within Israelite society resulting from usury and debt slavery. (For such abusive practices, see Neh 5.1–13; Job 24.9; Ezek 18.16–18; Am 2.6–8.)
15.1–3 Sabbatical remission of debts (Hebrew shemitta, only in 15.1, 2, 9; 31.10) regularizes proclamation on the Lord’s behalf of “liberty” for Israel’s oppressed from burdens of indebtedness (cf. 10.17–18; Lev 25; Isa 61.1–2; Jer 34.8–22).
15.2 Claim, the debt itself, but also the surety pledged for a loan or taken as distraint after default (cf. 2 Kings 4.1; Prov 6.1–5; 17.18; 22.26–27).
15.3 Debts of a foreigner are unaffected (cf. Prov 20.16; 27.13).
15.4–6 Homiletical motivation: fidelity to the covenant will assure ample blessings for all citizens to share, making Israel preeminent among nations (cf. 7.12–14; 26.15; 28.1–14).
15.7–11 These exhortations anticipate that periodic cancellation of debts could seriously curtail lending, thus aggravating the plight of those in need (cf. Mishnah Shebi‘it 10). Enforcement must be left to the Lord’s devices of reward and punishment (cf. 24.19; Ps 37.21–22; Prov 19.17).
15.9 Cry. An appeal to the divine judge for redress (24.15; cf. Ex 2.23–24; 22.23–24, 27).
15.12–18 In context, this reworking of older laws of manumission (Ex 21.2–11) apparently favors a collective release of both male and female bond slaves in the fixed sabbatical year of remission (cf. 31.10–13; Jer 34.8–14).
15.12 Hebrew, which seems to mean client status in Ex 21.2, here simply denotes a fellow Israelite; member of your community, lit. “your brother,” rendered inclusively as sense requires. Sold, e.g., as a debtor or distrainee, or indentured by judicial authority to make restitution for a theft (cf. Ex 22.3).
15.13–15 Generous provision for those released is urged as appropriate imitation of the Lord’s liberality in redeeming Israel from Egyptian slavery (cf. 5.14–15; 10.17–22; 16.12; 24.18, 22; 26.6–10). Empty-handed. Cf. 16.16; also Ex 3.21–22.
15.16–18 A noteworthy revision of Ex 21.2–11 includes the general presumption against permanent enslavement of Israelites as well as the equal treatment now accorded a bondwoman.
15.19–23 Provision is made for disposal of firstlings in accord with the requirements of the single sanctuary. (For antecedent and alternate rulings, see Ex 13.2, 11–16; 22.29–30; 34.19–20; Lev 22.26–27; 27.26–27; Num 18.15–18.)
15.19–20 Though male firstlings of livestock must not be used productively, a flexible schedule (year by year) is allowed for sacrificial presentation (cf. 12.6–7, 17–18; 14.23; 16.16; Ex 22.30).
15.21–22 Rules of local slaughter (12.15–16, 22–24) apply to any firstling unacceptable for sacrifice because of serious defect (cf. 17.1; Lev 22.17–25; Mal 1.8).
DEUTERONOMY 16
The Passover Reviewed
1Observe the montha of Abib by keeping the passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2You shall offer the passover sacrifice to the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, at the place that the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3You must not eat with it anything leavened. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it—the bread of affliction—because you came out of the land of Egypt in great haste, so that all the days of your life you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt. 4No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days; and none of the meat of what you slaughter on the evening of the first day shall remain until morning. 5You are not permitted to offer the passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you. 6But at the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name, only there shall you offer the passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, the time of day when you departed from Egypt. 7You shall cook it and eat it at the place that the LORD your God will choose; the next morning you may go back to your tents. 8For six days you shall continue to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly for the LORD your God, when you shall do no work.
The Festival of Weeks Reviewed
9You shall count seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 10Then you shall keep the festival of weeks to the LORD your God, contributing a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing that you have received from the LORD your God. 11Rejoice before the LORD your God—you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, the Levites resident in your towns, as well as the strangers, the orphans, and the widows who are among you—at the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 12Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and diligently observe these statutes.
The Festival of Booths Reviewed
13You shall keep the festival of boothsb for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your wine press. 14Rejoice during your festival, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows resident in your towns. 15Seven days you shall keep the festival to the LORD your God at the place that the LORD will choose; for the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all your undertakings, a
nd you shall surely celebrate.
16Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the festival of unleavened bread, at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of booths.c They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed; 17all shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.
Municipal Judges and Officers
18You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes, in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, and they shall render just decisions for the people. 19You must not distort justice; you must not show partiality; and you must not accept bribes, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. 20Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
Forbidden Forms of Worship
21You shall not plant any tree as a sacred poled beside the altar that you make for the LORD your God; 22nor shall you set up a stone pillar—things that the LORD your God hates.
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a Or new moon
b Or tabernacles; Heb succoth
c Or tabernacles; Heb succoth
d Heb Asherah
16.1–17 Deuteronomic restriction of Israel’s ritual sacrifices and related ceremonies to a single sanctuary (12.5) culminates in this sketch of a revised liturgical calendar (see Ex 23.14–18; 34.18–24; cf. Lev 23.4–44; Num 28.11–29.39; Ezek 45.18–25).
16.1–8 Communal celebration of the Passover sacrifice (vv. 1–2, 4b–7) is closely correlated with the weeklong consumption of unleavened bread (vv. 3–4a, 8) to commemorate the exodus from Egypt (see Ex 12–13; 23.15; 34.18; cf. Josh 5.10–12; 2 Kings 23.21–23; 2 Chr 30; 35.1–19).
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