Exodus 23 · a question people ask
Why not boil a young goat in its mother's milk?
"You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk" (23:19). The Bible gives this law three times, in the same words: here, in 34:26, and in Deuteronomy 14:21. In Exodus it comes both times right after the command to bring the first of the first fruits of the ground to the house of the LORD (23:19; 34:26). In Deuteronomy it comes among laws about food, after "for you are a holy people to the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 14:21). None of the three says why. Christians read it in two main ways. Both agree that the text itself gives no reason, and that the command stands with the others as part of what the LORD told Israel.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A law of kindness
Those who hold this view set it beside other laws about a mother animal and her young: "Whether it is a cow or ewe, you shall not kill it and its young both in one day" (Leviticus 22:28), and, of a bird's nest, "you shall not take the hen with the young" (Deuteronomy 22:6). They read the goat law as the same kind of care, like the rest this chapter gives to "your ox and your donkey" (23:12).
Leviticus 22:27-28 · Deuteronomy 22:6-7 · Exodus 23:12
A mark of a people set apart
Those who hold this view point to where the law sits. In Deuteronomy it follows "for you are a holy people to the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 14:21), and in Exodus, both times, it follows the command to bring the first fruits to the house of the LORD (23:19; 34:26). They read it as one of the ways Israel was to be different in eating and in worship, without needing a reason beyond the LORD's command.
Deuteronomy 14:21 · Exodus 23:19 · Exodus 34:26
The verses
“You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
““You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.””
“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.”