Deuteronomy 14:13 Meaning and Explanation
“And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Lists of forbidden birds can look like the least rewarding page in Deuteronomy, and yet a verse like this one shows how carefully Israel's daily life was shaped. The names are hard to pin down after three thousand years, and what they share is clear enough. This line teaches by category, and the category tells us something about the holiness God was forming in an ordinary kitchen.
Moses continues the list of birds Israel may not eat, naming three birds of prey and adding 'after his kind' so that whole families of similar birds fall under the same instruction.
The Context of Deuteronomy 14:13
Moses is addressing Israel on the plains of Moab before they enter the land. Deuteronomy 14 opens by calling them children of the LORD and a holy people chosen for himself, then moves to food. Verses 4 through 8 cover land animals, verses 9 and 10 cover creatures in the water, and verse 11 states the rule for birds: of all clean birds ye shall eat. Verse 12 begins the exceptions with the eagle, the ossifrage, and the ospray. Verse 13 continues that list, which runs through verse 18 and closes with a summary in verses 19 and 20.
What Does Deuteronomy 14:13 Mean?
Three names appear, and each has been rendered differently across the centuries because the Hebrew terms are rare. 'Glede' is an old English word for a gliding bird of prey. 'Kite' names a soaring hunter with a forked tail. 'Vulture' names a carrion eater. The phrase 'after his kind' attaches to the last of them and does important work, extending the instruction to the whole family rather than one species a person might identify. Israel did not need an ornithologist to obey. A household could look at a bird that hunted or fed on carcasses and recognize where it belonged in this list.
Every bird named in verses 12 through 18 shares a habit: it takes flesh, often flesh it did not kill. Israel was learning to keep distance from death itself, which runs through the whole law. Verse 21 forbids eating anything that dies of itself, and the same chapter opens by forbidding the mourning customs of cutting and shaving for the dead. Chapter 14 puts these instructions under one heading given twice, in verse 2 and verse 21: Israel is a holy people belonging to the LORD. Diet became a daily rehearsal of that identity, felt at every meal in every house.
Peter's vision in Acts 10 brings this list into the life of the church. A sheet came down holding creatures of every sort, including fowls of the air, with the command to kill and eat, and Peter refused three times before God said what he had cleansed was clean. The lesson Peter drew, stated in Acts 10:28, concerned people: God had shown him to call no man common or unclean. The distinctions God gave Israel were genuine, given by him for that season, and God himself opened the table to the nations through Christ. The holiness these verses trained is carried forward into a much wider family.
Deuteronomy 14:13 in the Original Language
min (מִין), 'kind' -- a noun for a category or species group, the same word used through the creation account in Genesis 1. Here it widens each named bird into its whole family, so the instruction covers birds an Israelite could recognize by type.
Bible Verses Related to Deuteronomy 14:13
“And the vulture, and the kite after his kind;”
- Leviticus 11:14
“For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”
- Deuteronomy 14:2
“And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”
- Genesis 1:21
“And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”
- Acts 10:15
Where Deuteronomy 14:13 Echoes in Scripture
Leviticus 11:13-19 carries the same bird list with small differences in order and wording, and Leviticus 11:14 matches this verse closely. Deuteronomy is Moses restating the law for a new generation about to cross the Jordan, so the repetition is part of its purpose. Reading the two side by side shows a settled body of instruction rather than a fresh invention. Leviticus 11:44 states the reason both passages share, calling Israel to holiness because the LORD their God is holy.
How to Apply Deuteronomy 14:13 Today
Small daily decisions shape identity more than large occasional ones. Israel remembered whose they were three times a day at the table. We have our own recurring choices: what we watch late at night, how we speak about absent people, which invitations we accept, where our money goes on an ordinary Tuesday. None of these feel weighty in the moment, and together they form us. Verse 13 invites us to ask what habits are quietly training our hearts, and to let belonging to God reach into the practical corners of a week rather than staying in an hour on Sunday.
Reflection & Prayer
Which ordinary habit of ours would show an outsider whose we are? A prayer: Holy Lord, you taught your people to remember you in something as common as a meal. Teach us the same attentiveness. Let our small repeated choices point toward you, and give us gratitude for the daily provisions we so easily take for granted.