Verse 1. - Ye are the children of Jehovah your God (cf. Exodus 4:22, etc.). As his children, it behooved them to avoid all that would be offensive to him or indicate distrust in him. Ye shall not cut yourselves, etc. (cf. Leviticus 19:28; Leviticus 21:5; Jeremiah 16:6; Jeremiah 48:36, 37; Ezekiel 7:18; Ezekiel 27:31). ("Ex hac opinions sunt ilia varia et detestabilia genera lugendi, paedores, muliebres lacerationes genarum, pectoris, feminum, capitis percussiones." Cicero, 'Tusc. Quaest.,' 3:26; see also ' De Legibus,' 2:25.)

Verse 2. - (Cf. Deuteronomy 7:6.) The reason assigned here is an emphatic expansion of the statement in ver. 1.

Verse 3. - Any abominable thing. Any abomination, i.e. anything which is an abomination to the Lord, having been by him pronounced unclean and forbidden; "anything which I have put far away from you (i.e. made to be abominable to you)" (Targum Jonath.). "Every creature of God is good," and "there is nothing unclean of itself" (1 Timothy 4:4; Romans 14:14); "but by the ordinance of God, certain creatures, meats, and drinks were made unclean to the Jews... and this taught them holiness in abstaining from the impure communion with the wicked" (Ainsworth).

Verses 4-20. - The regulations here concerning food, and the animals the use of which is forbidden, are substantially the same as in Leviticus 2. There are, however, some differences between the two accounts which may be noticed.

1. In Deuteronomy, the mammals which may be used for food are severally specified as well as described by the general characteristic of the class; in Leviticus, only the latter description is given.

2. In the list of fowls which may not be eaten, the raah (glade) is mentioned in Deuteronomy, but not in Leviticus; and the bird which in the one is called da'ah, is in the other called dayyah (vulture).

3. The class of reptiles which is carefully described in Leviticus is wholly omitted in Deuteronomy.

4. Winged insects are forbidden without exception in Deuteronomy; in Leviticus, the locust and certain other insects of the same kind are excepted.

5. Some slight differences in the order of enumeration appear.

Verse 5. - The hart; ayyal (אַיָּל), probably the fallow deer, or deer generally. The roebuck; tsebi (צְבִי), the gazelle (Gazella Arabica). The fallow deer; yachmur (יחְמוּר), the roebuck. The wild goat; akko (אַקּו), the ibex. The pygarg; dishon (דִישׁון), some kind of antelope, probably the Gazella Dorcas. The wild ox; the'o (תְאו), probably the bubale, or wild cow of the Arabs (Alcephalus bubalis), a species of antelope. The chamois; zamer (זָמֶר), probably the wild sheep (Ovis Tragelaphus.)

Verse 13. - The glede; ra'ah (רָאָה). This word occurs only here, and it is supposed by some that, by an error of the copyist, substituting ר for ד, it has come instead of דָאָה, as used in Leviticus 11:14. But it is more probable, as above suggested, that the da'ah of Leviticus is represented by the dayyah of Deuteronomy, and that consequently the reading raah should be re-rained. This word, derived from רָאָה, to see, to look, would appropriately designate a bird of keen sight, one of the hawk species. The bird intended may be a buzzard, of which there are now several kinds in Palestine.

Verse 21. - (Cf. Leviticus 17:15; Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26.) The stranger that is in thy gates. "The uncircumcised stranger that is in thy cities ' (Targum), i.e. "a heathen who takes upon him that he will serve no idol, with the residue of the commandments which were commanded to the sons of Noah, but is not circumcised nor baptized (Maimonides, 'Issure Biah,' Deuteronomy 14. § 7)" (Ainsworth). Alien; a foreigner, one not resident in the land of Israel.

Verses 22-29. - A tithing of each year's produce of the cultivated ground was to be made; and this tithe was to be brought to the place which the Lord should choose, as also the firstling of the herds and flocks; and there a sacrificial meal was to be partaken of, that Israel might learn to fear Jehovah their God always, reverencing him as their Ruler, and rejoicing in him as the Giver of all good. Verse 22. - Thy seed. "Seed" here refers to plants as well as what is raised from seed (cf. Jeremiah 2:21; Ezekiel 17:5, 6). The reference is to the second or festival tithe which was exclusively of vegetables.

Verse 24. - In the land of Canaan, as the people would be dispersed over a wide tract, it might happen that the place which the Lord should choose was at such a distance from the usual residence of many that to observe this injunction would be to them very difficult, if not impossible. To meet this, therefore, it was enacted that the tithe might be commuted into money, and with this the things required for the sacrificial meals at the sanctuary might be purchased.

Verse 26. - Strong drink; shecar (שֵׁכַר). "Any drink which can inebriate, whether that is made from grain, or the juice of apples, or when honey is boiled into a sweet and barbarous potion, or the fruit of the palm [dates], is expressed into liquor, and the duller water is colored by the prepared fruits" (Jerome, 'De Vit. Cler.').

Verses 28, 29. - Every third year the whole tithe of the year's produce was to be set apart, not to be brought to the sanctuary to be eaten before the Lord, but as a portion in their towns for the Levite, the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless. The end of three years; i.e. as the third year expired, consequently, in the last year of the triennium (Deuteronomy 26:12); just as "the end of seven years" means each seventh year (Deuteronomy 15:1; Deuteronomy 31:10; Jeremiah 34:14). This was not an additional tithe, but the former differently applied; the tithe of the first and second years was to be eaten before the Lord at the sanctuary; the tithe of the third year was for the poor and needy.