14:1 You are children of Yahweh Membership in Yahweh’s family and household is the basis both of purity before Yahweh and abstinence from the worship of pagan gods.

you must not make your forehead bald Priests are explicitly commanded to avoid these mourning practices in Lev 21:5. Here the prohibition is extended to the entire people of Israel. The mourning customs of ritual cutting of the skin and shaving of the hair occurred widely in the ancient Near East. The cutting Moses refers to here presumably occurred in the context of mourning rites since he mentions it along with hair removal.

14:2 a people holy to Yahweh Israel’s status as Yahweh’s chosen people requires them to maintain holiness. This holiness was not about morality but about maintaining the separateness of whatever was considered holy. The requirements for ritual purity were designed to maintain the distinction between holy things and everyday things (Lev 10:10–11).

14:8 the pig See note on Lev 11:7.

you shall not touch their carcasses Touching the dead body of an unclean animal also caused impurity. Compare Lev 11:26–28.

14:9 that has fins and scales See Lev 11:9–12.

14:18 the bat See note on Lev 11:19.

14:19 And also all of the winged insects; they are unclean for you Leviticus makes an exception for insects that have jointed legs, so locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers are permitted as food (Lev 11:20–23).

14:21 any carcass The blood would not have been properly drained from an animal carcass that had died of natural causes. See Exod 22:30; Lev 7:24; 22:8.

you may sell it to a foreigner Resident aliens and foreigners were not Israelites. Having no relationship to Yahweh, sacrificial laws expressing believing loyalty to Yahweh did not apply to them.

in its mother’s milk This prohibition also appears in Exodus, but not in the dietary laws of Leviticus (compare Exod 23:19 and note; Exod 34:26).

14:22 Certainly you must give a tithe of The Hebrew word used here, asser, often translated as “tithe,” means “tenth.” See Lev 27:30; Num 18:21.

14:23 place that he will choose See Deut 12:5 and note.

the firstling of your herd and your flock Deuteronomy 15:19–20 commands the Israelites to sacrifice and consume all firstborn animals. See Num 3:41, 45.

you may learn to revere Yahweh The giving of tithes and offerings in the context of a central sanctuary (see Deut 14:24; compare ch. 12) likely created the opportunity for people to learn the expectations of the law.

14:24 the distance is too great for you An accommodation to the great distance some would have to travel to the central sanctuary (see ch. 12).

14:25 you may exchange for money On a long trip, cattle could injure themselves and crops could spoil (resulting in them becoming unfit for sacrifice). For people who traveled long distances to the central sanctuary (see ch. 12), Moses offers the alternative of making tithes of silver to bring to the sanctuary instead of cattle and crops.

14:26 strong drink The ingredients of this intoxicating beverage are not known with certainty. It may refer to beer or wine made from ingredients other than grapes. Consumption of beer was common in the ancient Near East.

14:27 there is not a plot of ground for him and an inheritance along with you See Num 18:20; Deut 12:12 and note.