Deuteronomy 14:21 · Bible study
Deuteronomy 14:21 Commentary: Holiness, the Foreigner, and the Kid
Hebrew · 8 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Examine Deuteronomy 14:21. Why does the law repeat the prohibition against boiling a kid in its mother's milk, and what does it mean for Israel's holiness?
Research Summary
- Meaning: Israel’s holiness governs diet (no carrion) and worship (no pagan mixture), while providing for the foreigner.
- Key words: Nevelah (carcass), ger (settled foreigner), nokhri (transient foreigner), qadosh (holy).
- Main debate: Whether the kid-in-milk prohibition targets a specific Canaanite fertility ritual or enforces a general principle of compassion and creation-order.
- Theological theme: Holiness is both separation from defilement and orientation toward God in every area of life.
- Best use: Teaching on the purpose of Old Testament law; Christian identity; the connection between worship, ethics, and hospitality.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
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.
WEB World English Bible 2000
You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you 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. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
KJV King James Version 1769
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.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself: thou mayest give it unto the sojourner that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner: for thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
`Ye do not eat of any carcase; to the sojourner who is within thy gates thou dost give it, and he hath eaten it; or sell it to a stranger; for a holy people thou art to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Ye shall eat of no carcase; thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is within thy gates, that he may eat it, or sell it unto a foreigner; for thou art a holy people to Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
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.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Ninguna cosa mortecina comeréis: al extranjero que está en tus poblaciones la darás, y él la comerá: ó véndela al extranjero; porque tú eres pueblo santo á Jehová tu Dios. No cocerás el cabrito en la leche de su madre.
Nenhuma coisa morta comereis: ao estrangeiro que está em tuas povoações a darás, e ele a comerá: ou vende-a ao estrangeiro; porque tu és povo santo ao SENHOR teu Deus. Não cozerás o cabrito no leite de sua mãe.
Vous ne mangerez d’ aucune bête morte; tu la donneras à l’ étranger qui sera dans tes portes, afin qu’ il la mange, ou tu la vendras à un étranger; car tu es un peuple saint pour l’ Éternel, ton Dieu. Tu ne feras point cuire un chevreau dans le lait de sa mère.
Ihr sollt kein Aas essen- dem Fremdling in deinem Tor magst du es geben, daß er's esse oder daß er's verkaufe einem Ausländer; denn du bist ein heiliges Volk dem HERRN, deinem Gott. Du sollst das Böcklein nicht kochen in der Milch seiner Mutter.
Gij zult geen dood aas eten; den vreemdeling, die in uw poorten is, zult gij het geven, dat hij het ete, of verkoopt het den vreemde; want gij zijt een heilig volk den HEERE, uw God. Gij zult het bokje niet koken in de melk zijner moeder.
Non mangerete d’alcuna bestia morta da sé; la darai allo straniero che sarà entro le tue porte perché la mangi, o la venderai a qualche estraneo; poiché tu sei un popolo consacrato all’Eterno, ch’è il tuo Dio. Non farai cuocere il capretto nel latte di sua madre.
Nie będziecie jeść żadnej zdechliny; przychodniowi, który jest w bramach twoich, dasz to, a jeść to będzie, albo sprzedasz cudzoziemcowi; boś ty lud święty Panu, Bogu twemu, nie będziesz warzył koźlęcia w mleku matki jego.
Не ешьте никакой мертвечины; иноземцу, который случится в жилищах твоих, отдай ее, он пусть ест ее, или продай ему, ибо ты народ святой у Господа Бога твоего. Не вари козленка в молоке матери его.
「凡 自死的，你們都不可 吃，可以給 你城裡 寄居的 吃，或 賣 與外人吃，因為 你是 歸耶和華─你 神 為聖潔 的民。「不可 用山羊羔母 的奶 煮 山羊羔。」
You may not have as food anything which has come to a natural death; the man from another country who is living with you may take it for food, or you may get a price for it from one of another nation; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Deuteronomy 14:21
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators broadly agree that verse 21 connects two distinct regulations, the eating of carrion and the prohibition of cooking a kid in its mother’s milk, under the single banner of Israel’s holiness. Calvin and Matthew Henry focus on the repeated declaration “for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God” as the theological engine of both commands. Carnivores (nevelah) contract impurity, and the law provides an economic outlet through the settled foreigner (ger) or the traveling alien (nokhri) to avoid waste without compromising the community’s sacred identity. On the secondary prohibition, the Cambridge Bible, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, and Gill (citing Maimonides) recognize it as targeting a specific pagan fertility rite, though the precise nature of the rite is debated. This shared conviction invites modern readers to see the coherence beneath the surface of these ancient laws.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The law is consistently understood as calling Israel to a distinct identity rooted in their relationship with God, rejecting both defilement and syncretism.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Identity of the Foreigner | The law distinguishes two kinds of non-Israelites, the <em>ger</em> and the <em>nokhri</em>, with different obligations and privileges. | Gill identifies the <em>ger</em> as a proselyte of the gate who renounced idolatry but did not convert, while the Cambridge Bible sees the <em>ger</em> as a settled resident who was gradually brought into religious communion. |
| Meaning of the Kid-in-Milk Prohibition | The command prohibits a practice that conflicts with Israel’s holiness before God. | Some (Cambridge Bible, JFB, Matthew Henry following Maimonides) identify it as a specific Canaanite harvest magic rite. Others understand it as a general moral principle against cruelty or mixing the symbols of life (milk) and death (slaughter). A Jewish interpretive tradition (Gill citing Maimonides) expands the prohibition to forbid all mixing of meat and dairy. |
| Binding Authority for Christians | Christians read these Old Testament laws in the light of Christ’s fulfillment of the Law. | Christians who emphasize the ceremonial nature of the law see it as fulfilled and not binding on diet (following Acts 15). Christians who see moral principles under the ceremony apply its logic of distinctiveness and non-syncretism. Jewish tradition continues to observe the commands as binding. |
Historical & Cultural Context
The structure of the verse reflects the layered social world of ancient Israel. The term ger (sojourner) refers to a non-Israelite living permanently within the community, bound by certain laws. Leviticus 17:15 later extends the carrion restriction even to him, suggesting integration into the covenant community over time. The nokhri is a foreigner passing through with fewer obligations, to whom the carrion could be sold. This distinction shows that holiness was not a wall of isolation but a specific way of maintaining identity while still engaging the world.
The prohibition “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk” is the only law repeated three times in the Torah (Exodus 23:19, 34:26, and here). Matthew Henry and the Cambridge Bible scholars, drawing on Maimonides, describe a Canaanite harvest festival where a kid was cooked in its own mother’s milk and the mixture was sprinkled on gardens and fields as a fertility charm. By banning this, God separated Israel from the magical thinking of surrounding nations. Understanding this context helps readers see that God’s commands about holiness were never arbitrary. They reshaped a people into His own image, one table and one field at a time.
Textual Notes
The supplied commentaries note no significant textual variants for this verse. The Hebrew text is stable across the manuscript tradition, with the two prohibitions (carrion and kid-in-milk) consistently linked by the holiness formula.
Reception History
In Jewish tradition, the Mishnah (reflected in Gill’s citation of Maimonides and Bartenora) uses the threefold repetition of the kid-in-milk command to derive prohibitions on eating, benefiting from, and cooking any mixture of meat and dairy. This became foundational for the kosher laws separating meat and milk.
Christian readers have often seen these laws as fulfilled in Christ, emphasizing the ceremonial and typological character of the Old Testament law rather than its literal dietary application for the Church. The command continues to be read for its principle of holiness: God’s people are to avoid mixing worship of Him with the practices of surrounding cultures.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- Holiness Creates Honest Boundaries. The carrion restriction established a visible distinction between Israel and the nations. What enters the body matters because the body belongs to the Lord.
- Holiness Creates Practical Hospitality. The provision for the ger and nokhri shows that holiness is not withdrawal. It is a way of living distinctly while still loving the stranger within the gate.
- Holiness Rejects All Syncretism. The triple repetition of the kid-in-milk command underlines God’s firm rejection of mixing worship of Him with pagan rites. Worship is a matter of life and death, not magic and fertility.
Five-point outline
- The Foundation: God’s call to be a holy people (v. 21, 14:2).
- The Practice: Daily decisions about food shape communal identity.
- The Reach: Holiness makes room for the foreigner; it does not close the gate.
- The Guard: The kid-in-milk law protects worship from the seduction of surrounding culture.
- The Goal: Holiness is not about being better, but about belonging to God and bearing His name well.
Illustration hooks
- A neighborhood potluck where one family’s dietary rules are respected without complaint, showing how boundaries can create safe space rather than awkwardness.
- A church that chooses a simpler, less culturally fashionable worship style to avoid imitating the entertainment culture around it.
- A family that gives up a lucrative side job because it conflicts with Sabbath rest, reflecting a commitment to God’s order over financial gain.
Questions your congregation is asking
- “Why does the Old Testament seem to have double standards for Israelites and foreigners?”
- “Is the ‘kid in mother’s milk’ command just about being kind to animals, or was it something deeper?”
- “If the law let Israel sell carrion to a foreigner, doesn’t that mean God cares more about Israel’s purity than the foreigner’s health?”
Leading a Discussion
This verse sits at the seam between diet, worship, and hospitality. The group will be asked to hold two things together: the razor-thin boundary of holiness that separates Israel from the nations, and the open gate that provides for the stranger. Each question moves the group from what the text says to what it means for life together.
Discussion questions
- Observation: What specific actions are commanded and prohibited in this verse?
- Observation: Who is the ger (sojourner) and who is the nokhri (foreigner)? What do their labels tell you about their place in Israel?
- Interpretation: Why do you think the law allows carrion to be given to the foreigner but not eaten by the Israelite? What does this teach about how holiness interacts with others?
- Interpretation: The “kid in its mother’s milk” command is repeated three times in the Torah. What does this repetition suggest about its importance for Israel’s identity?
- Interpretation: How does the repeated declaration “for you are a holy people” (v. 21, 14:2) reframe the specific commands that follow and precede it?
- Application: What are modern “mixtures” of worship and the surrounding culture that your community must guard against?
- Application: How might the principle of holiness reshape your daily habits, from what you consume to how you treat the stranger in your midst?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Exodus 12:43 | Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it, |
| Exodus 12:45 | A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it. |
| Exodus 23:19 | You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. |
| Exodus 34:26 | “You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” |
| Leviticus 17:15 | “‘Every person that eats what dies of itself, or that which is torn by animals, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. Then he shall be clean. |
| Leviticus 19:33 | “‘If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. |
| Leviticus 19:34 | The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God. |
| Leviticus 22:8 | He shall not eat that which dies of itself or is torn by animals, defiling himself by it. I am Yahweh. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
8 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke presents Calmet's view that the command refers specifically to the paschal lamb, which was not to be offered to God until weaned from its mother. He does not settle the matter here, directing readers to his note on the parallel passage for further discussion.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin draws a careful distinction: the ban on eating an animal that died naturally or was torn by beasts stems from the uncleanness caused by its unnatural death, not from the animal itself being impure. He stresses that Israel's holiness as God's people is the motive for avoiding such defilement.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The Cambridge commentary identifies the prohibition against boiling a kid in its mother's milk as a response to a pagan fertility ritual. It notes that some Gentiles would boil a kid in its dam's milk and sprinkle the mixture on fields as a magical practice to ensure a fruitful harvest, which the law was designed to forbid.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note underscores that these dietary restrictions flow from Israel's identity as a holy people set apart for the Lord. Even everyday practices like handling meat or cooking a young goat show that God's people must live differently than the nations around them.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill carefully distinguishes who may eat meat from an animal that died naturally: not the fully converted proselyte of righteousness, but the proselyte of the gate who renounced idolatry without embracing Judaism, and an alien idolater passing through the land. He also notes the law against boiling a kid in its mother's milk is repeated three times, each forbidding a different use—eating, profiting, and boiling.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB distinguishes between two kinds of "stranger": not the proselyte, who was bound by this law, but a pagan traveler who could eat meat from an animal that died naturally. On boiling a kid in its mother's milk, he notes this third repetition targets an annual pagan ceremony.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange argues the food laws are not about health or arbitrary divine whim but symbolize Israel's consecration to the living God. Clean animals with cloven hooves and cud-chewing recall the original creation without sin or death, while unclean animals represent death's corruption. What is an abomination to God must therefore defile His holy people.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Matthew Henry connects Israel's unusual dietary laws directly to their identity as God's own children, chosen and holy. What they ate and how they mourned were not just arbitrary rules but daily reminders that they belonged to the Lord above all other nations.