Deuteronomy 14 Bible study: Children of the LORD your God

The chapter opens with who Israel is: "You are the children of the LORD your God" (14:1). In Hebrew, "You are the children" (14:1) is two words, banim attem (tap children). The first command comes right after it: "You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead" (14:1). Leviticus has laws close to this. For everyone: "You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead" (Leviticus 19:28). For the priests: "They shall not shave their heads or shave off the corners of their beards or make any cuttings in their flesh" (Leviticus 21:5). Deuteronomy gives the baldness law to the whole people, and ties the two commands to who they are: "You are the children of the LORD your God" (14:1), and "you are a holy people to the LORD your God" (14:2). In Hebrew, "baldness" is the word behind Leviticus 21:5's "shave their heads" (tap baldness), while "cut yourselves" is a different word from Leviticus's "cuttings" (tap cut). The rest of 14:2 is 7:6 said again, almost word for word: "the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth" (14:2).

Deuteronomy 14:1→leads to1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

Moses tells Israel, "You are the children of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead" (14:1). Paul writes "concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13), and gives his reason: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Paul doesn't cite Deuteronomy 14, so this is a reading. Some hear one thread in both: in each, God's people face their dead as a people set apart, Israel as "a people for his own possession, above all peoples" (14:2), and believers from "the rest, who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Others note that Moses forbids two acts and gives as his reason who Israel is (14:1-2), while Paul speaks of grief itself and gives as his reason that Jesus died and rose again (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and read the two as sharing a subject without one pointing to the other.

בֵּןbensay BEIN

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "son", with "children (male and female)" among its senses. Strong's: "a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense". "You are the children of the LORD your God" (14:1): here it is plural, banim. In Exodus the LORD says it of Israel as one son: "Israel is my son, my firstborn" (Exodus 4:22). Deuteronomy has used the word as a picture: "as a man carries his son" (1:31), and "as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you" (8:5). Moses' song near the end uses it of Israel again: "The LORD saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters" (32:19), and "children in whom is no faithfulness" (32:20).