Deuteronomy 14

YE are the children of the LORD your God Whom therefore you must not disparage by unworthy or unbecoming practises, such as here follow, and whom you must not disobey.: ye shall not cut your selves, nor make any baldness between your eyes Which were the practises of Idolaters both in the worship of their Idols, as 1 King. 18. 28. or in their funerals, as here and Ier. 16. 6. or upon occasion of publick calamities, as Ier. 41. 5. and 47. 5. See more on Levit. 19. 27, 28. and 21. 5. for the dead Through excessive sorrow for your dead friends, as if you had no hope of their happiness after death, 1 Thess. 4. 13..

For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD has chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

Thou shalt not eat any abominable (i. e.) Unclean and forbidden by me, which therefore should be abhominable to you. thing.

These are the beasts Of which see on Levit. 11. The small differences between some of their names here and there are not proper for this work. The learned reader may find them cleared in my Latin Synopsis. For others they may well enough want the knowledge of them, both because these are the smaller matters of the Law, and because this distinction of clean and unclean beasts is now out of date., which ye shall eat, the ox, the sheep, and the goat,

The hart, and the ro-buck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois:

And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud amongst the beasts: that ye shall eat.

Nevertheless, these ye shall not eat, of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof, as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof, therefore they are unclean unto you.

And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.

These ye shall eat, of all that are in the waters: all that has fins and scales shall ye eat.

And whatsoever has not fins and scales, ye may not eat: it is unclean unto you.

Of all clean birds ye shall eat.

But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey,

And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,

And every raven after his kind,

And the owl, and the night-hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,

The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,

And the pelican, and the gier-eagle, and the cormorant,

And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

And every creeping thing that flyeth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten.

But of all clean fowls ye may eat.

Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of it self: thou shalt give it unto the stranger Not to the proselyte, for such were obliged by this Law, Levit. 17. 15. but to such as were strangers in Religion as well as in nation, 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 see the a kid in his mothers milk.

Thou shalt truly tithe all the encrease of thy seed This is to be understood of the second tithes, which seem to be the same with the tithes of the third year, mentioned here below ver. 28. and Deut. 26. 12. of which see above on ver. 17. And to confirm this opinion, though I would not lay too great a stress upon criticismes. Yet I cannot but observe that this tithing is spoken of only as the peoples act here, and Deut. 26. 12. and the Levites are not at all mentioned in either place as receivers or takers of them, but only as partakers of them together with the owners, and therefore they are so severely charged here upon their consciences, thou shalt truly tithe all thine increase, because the execution of this was left wholly to themselves, whereas the first tithes were received by the Levites, who therefore are said to take or receive those tithes, Numb. 18. 26. Neh. 10. 38. Heb. 7. 5., that the field bringeth forth year by year.

And thou shalt eat before the LORD See on Deut. 12. 6, 17. thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his Name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds, and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.

And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, or if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his Name there, when the LORD thy God has blessed thee:

Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the mony in thine hand (i. e.) In a bag to be taken into thy hand and carried with thee., and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose.

And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God and thou shalt rejoyce, thou and thine houshold.

And the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him Thou shalt give him a share in such tithes or in the product of them.: for he has no part nor inheritance with thee.

At the end of three years (i. e.) In the third year, as it is expressed, Deut. 26. 12. So, in the end of three years or of seven years is the same with in the third or seventh year, as appears by comparing Deut. 31. 10. Ios. 9. 16, 17. 2 King. 18. 9, 10. and 17. 6. thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase I joyn with those Expositors who make this same tithe with the former ver. 22. as being called by the same tithe without any distinction between them save only as to the place of eating them. See above on ver. 22. and Deut. 12. 17. the same year This is added to show that he speaks of the third year, and not of the fourth year, as some might conjecture from the phrase, at the end of three years., and shalt lay it up within thy gates,

And the Levite (because he has no part nor inheritance with thee) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat, and be satisfied, that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.