Deuteronomy 14 Summary

Moses opens by reminding Israel of their identity as God's holy, chosen people, forbidding mourning rites such as cutting the body or shaving the head for the dead. He then gives detailed dietary laws: lists of permitted and forbidden land animals, water creatures, and birds, along with a prohibition on eating anything that has died of itself and a ban on boiling a kid in its mother's milk. The chapter closes with regulations on the annual tithe—the Israelites are to bring a tenth of their agricultural produce to the place God chooses and eat it there in worship; those too distant may convert the tithe to silver and spend it at that central sanctuary. Every third year, the tithe is to be stored locally to provide for the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows.