Christian Family Services Ministry

8-12-2023 – A Word to the Wise – On Deut 14:21 for the last time. Nearly every translation agrees with you, ‘boiling in mother’s milk’. The trouble is it makes no sense. It would take a huge amount of milk to boil the animal in it. I challenge anyone to find in ancient times when this was done.

However, if you take the warning to mean not to take the lamb from its mother while it is still nursing, that is a different matter altogether. That has to do with the feeling of loss the mother experiences. Now the question is does the Hebrew text allow such a translation. Yes, it does because the preceding B on this word is called an inseparable preposition. It can be translated in, at with by. or against. It is used this way 15, 559 in the Hebrew text.

The same word is used in the alternate passages. So, if you want to worry about boiling a lamb in the milk, then worry yourself to death. However, if you want to consider if it’s pleasing to the Lord to take nursing babies from its mother, you choose which you may be tempted to do.