Deuteronomy 14:3

Summary

Deuteronomy 14:3 gives a short, general prohibition: the addressee is forbidden from eating anything classified as to'evah ("disgusting thing", H8441). It functions as a heading statement introducing the dietary restrictions detailed in the verses that follow.

Key words

• lo' ("not", H3808) — negative particle placed before the verb, forming a direct prohibition rather than a simple negative statement.
• to.Khal ("you will eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect combined with the preceding negation lo' produces a durative/general prohibition (an ongoing rule, not a one-time command).
• kol- ("any", H3605) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must attach to the following noun to form the phrase "any [of]...". Its construct form signals that to'evah completes its meaning.
• to.'e.Vah ("disgusting thing", H8441) — feminine singular noun, the object governed by kol-; it names the category of forbidden items without specifying which items belong to it in this verse.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is compact: negation + verb + construct noun + absolute noun. The verb to.Khal ("you will eat", H0398) is second person masculine singular, addressing an individual (or a collective "you" understood as the community, following typical legal-address style in Deuteronomy). The use of the imperfect aspect after lo' ("not", H3808) is the standard Biblical Hebrew construction for a general prohibition — not describing a single forbidden act but establishing an ongoing rule of conduct.

The phrase kol-to'evah ("any disgusting thing") uses the construct relationship: kol- ("any", H3605) cannot stand alone and depends on to'evah ("disgusting thing", H8441) to complete its sense — literally "any [instance] of disgusting-thing." The noun to'evah itself carries no built-in list of species or categories; it functions here as a classification term, with the specific forbidden creatures enumerated in the following verses of the chapter. The verse itself only states the general rule, not its contents.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) renders the phrase as "quæ immunda sunt" ("things which are unclean"), using a ritual-impurity term rather than a direct equivalent of to'evah ("disgusting thing", H8441). The LXX (Swete) uses bdelygma ("abomination"), which more closely parallels the Hebrew concept of something detestable. The Spanish (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and English (BSB) translations follow the Hebrew and LXX more closely with "abominable" or "detestable," while the Vulgate's "immunda" ("unclean") shifts the semantic emphasis toward ritual impurity rather than moral or categorical revulsion.