Read Deuteronomy 14 at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
Deu 14:1-2 {s} Do not mourn for the dead in the manner of the nations
Deu 14:3-8 {s} Do not eat unclean animals
Deu 14:9-10 {s} Do not eat unclean sea creatures
Deu 14:11-21 {p} Do not eat unclean flying things; do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk
The structure:
About the mysterious reference to boiling a kid in his mother’s milk: In Adam Clarke’s Commentary on Exodus 23:19, where the same command is given, we read:
This passage has greatly perplexed commentators; but Dr. Cudworth is supposed to have given it its true meaning by quoting a MS. comment of a Karaite Jew, which he met with, on this passage.
“It was a custom of the ancient heathens, when they had gathered in all their fruits, to take a kid and boil it in the milk of its dam; and then, in a magical way, to go about and besprinkle with it all their trees and fields, gardens and orchards; thinking by these means to make them fruitful, that they might bring forth more abundantly in the following year.”
-Cudworth on the Lord’s Supper, 4to.
I give this comment as I find it, and add that Spenser has shown that the Zabii used this kind of magical milk to sprinkle their trees and fields, in order to make them fruitful.
Deu 14 actually confirms this theory. The Hebrew paragraphs following the above, are:
14:22-27 {s} The annual tithe is YHVH’s
14:28-29 {s} The tithe of the third year is YHVH’s
Which concludes with this statement:
And the Levite, (because he has no part nor inheritance with you,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that YHVH your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. {s} Deu 14:29
In other words, do your want your flocks and fields – that is, your income – to be fruitful in the following year, O Israel? This is what you do: tithe!
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