You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 21. Of itself, or by suffocation.—Stranger, who has not embraced your religion. Menochius.—Hence it is inferred, that the Jews might keep unclean animals, and sell them; as they did not defile till they were dead. Jans.—If they had been unclean by nature, they could not have been sold, which shews that this ceremonial law regarded only the Jewish religion.—Dam. All appearance of cruelty must be avoided. Christ, who is signified by the kid, on account of his assuming our sinful nature, shall not be slain in his infancy. Saint Thomas Aquinas 2. q. 102. a. 6. Worthington.—Some take this prohibition literally, and extend it to calves and lambs. The Arabs use milk in almost all their ragouts. Roger. ii. 2.—Others think that kids must not be eaten while they are as yet too tender, Qui plus lactis habet quam sanguinis. Juv. Sat. xi.—But we believe that God forbids the paschal lamb or kid to be offered while it sucks. It must be of a competent age, of one year. Exodus 12:5 and 23:19. Other victims would do if they were only eight days old. Leviticus 22:27. Calmet.