p. 272 | Selling Animals That Died Naturally

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 6, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 17.

Selling Animals That Died Naturally

A CORRESPONDENT asks an explanation of the permission given in Deut. 14:21 to the Hebrews to sell to the heathen that which died of itself. The solution to the matter lies in the fact that the "strangers" and "aliens" to which they were permitted to sell that which died of itself, were in the habit of using just such things for food. Some Indian tribes still eat that which "dieth of itself," and they frequently buy or beg such carcasses from their civilized neighbors, and would feel that they were greatly injured if the owner of such animals should bury or burn their bodies instead of allowing them to have them for food. This was undoubtedly true of the heathen neighbors of the children of Israel, hence the permission given in Deut. 14:21.