You must not eat any detestable thing.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall not eat any abominable thing.
- KJV Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.
- NKJV “You shall not eat any detestable thing.
- NASB “You shall not eat any detestable thing.
- NLT “You must not eat any detestable animals that are ceremonially unclean.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel must not eat anything detestable. Their holiness extends even to what they put on the table.
Overview
This verse introduces the dietary laws by stating the governing principle: God's people must avoid what he calls abominable. Holiness touched the ordinary matter of food, marking Israel as distinct among the nations. These regulations, fulfilled and set aside in Christ who declared all foods clean, taught the deeper lesson of being set apart for God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ezek 4:14“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”
- Rom 14:14I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
- Lev 11:43Do not defile yourselves by any crawling creature; do not become unclean or defiled by them.
- Lev 20:25You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.
- Acts 10:12–14It contained all kinds of four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, as well as birds of the air.
- Titus 1:15To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
- 1 Cor 10:28But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—
- Isa 65:4sitting among the graves, spending nights in secret places, eating the meat of pigs and polluted broth from their bowls.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 14:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.