Deuteronomy 14:20

But of all clean fowls ye may eat.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:1-21 Moses tells the people of Israel how God had given them three distinguishing privileges, which were their honour, and figures of those spiritual blessings in heavenly things, with which God has in Christ blessed us. Here is election; The Lord hath chosen thee. He did not choose them because they were by their own acts a peculiar people to him above other nations, but he chose them that they might be so by his grace; and thus were believers chosen, Eph 1:4. Here is adoption; Ye are the children of the Lord your God; not because God needed children, but because they were orphans, and needed a father. Every spiritual Israelite is indeed a child of God, a partaker of his nature and favour. Here is sanctification; Thou art a holy people. God's people are required to be holy, and if they are holy, they are indebted to the grace God which makes them so. Those whom God chooses to be his children, he will form to be a holy people, and zealous of good works. They must be careful to avoid every thing which might disgrace their profession, in the sight of those who watch for their halting. Our heavenly Father forbids nothing but for our welfare. Do thyself no harm; do not ruin thy health, thy reputation, thy domestic comforts, thy peace of mind. Especially do not murder thy soul. Do not be the vile slave of thy appetites and passions. Do not render all around thee miserable, and thyself wretched; but aim at that which is most excellent and useful. The laws which regarded many sorts of flesh as unclean, were to keep them from mingling with their idolatrous neighbours. It is plain in the gospel, that these laws are now done away. But let us ask our own hearts, Are we of the children of the Lord our God? Are we separate from the ungodly world, in being set apart to God's glory, the purchase of Christ's blood? Are we subjects of the work of the Holy Ghost? Lord, teach us from these precepts how pure and holy all thy people ought to live!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The "pygarg" is a species of gazelle, and the "wild ox" and "chamois" are swift types of antelope.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. the lapwing—the upupa or hoop: a beautiful bird, but of the most unclean habits. [See on [138]Le 11:19].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But of all clean fowls ye may eat. Even of all fowls, but those before excepted; Aben Ezra instances in the locust, as being a clean fowl, that might be eaten; and so the Targum of Jonathan is"every clean locust ye may eat;''see Leviticus 11:22.

Geneva Study Bible

But of all clean fowls ye may eat.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. Of all clean winged things ye may eat] R.V. fowl is misleading; the term winged covers both birds and flying insects and here probably refers only to the latter. Arabs and other eastern peoples eat locusts not only in time of famine; fried or made into cakes they are considered a delicacy (Burton, Pilgrimage, etc., ii. 117; Doughty, i. 472, ii. 245 f., 323; Musil, Ethn. Ber. 151).

Nothing is said of reptiles (frogs may be supposed to fall under the class of unclean fishes, Deuteronomy 14:10). Leviticus 11:29 ff. counts as unclean, the weasel, mouse, lizards, chameleon and Leviticus 11:41 serpents. Arabs eat lizards, ‘very sweet meat,’ though some abhor them as serpents (Doughty, i. 70, 326, ii. 533: cp. for ancient Arabia, G. Jacob, 24, 95); and even one species of serpent is eaten (Musil, Ethn. Ber. 151). And mice are eaten both by some Arabs and in N. Syria (Tristram).

Deuteronomy 14:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

With reference to food, the Israelites were to eat nothing whatever that was abominable. In explanation of this prohibition, the laws of Leviticus 11 relating to clean and unclean animals are repeated in all essential points in vv. 4-20 (for the exposition, see at Leviticus 11); also in Deuteronomy 14:21 the prohibition against eating any animal that had fallen down dead (as in Exodus 32:30 and Leviticus 17:15), and against boiling a kid in its mother's milk (as in Exodus 23:19).