Milk and meat

Some have claimed the statement written by Moses 3 times “You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk” actually means "Do not cook and do not eat meat and milk mingled together."
Augustine of Hippo renders the phrase in Latin as diebus quibus lactatur “in the days when it suckles.” which means when the kid is still sucking on its mother.
Others come up with other interpretations of the text but does this statement by Moses have anything to do with diet, lactation, fortune telling, or mysticism?
The truth is often hard to accept but Moses is talking about the catastrophic consequences of excessive empathy on the micro level which we often see with a "devouring mother" but on the macro level will eventually weakens the poor and degenerates the masses dependent upon a national social safety net of legal charity.
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A seething problem

Does this statement by Moses that “You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk” have anything to do with diet, lactation, fortune telling, or mysticism?

But is there another meaning to the sacred text that clarifies the true message of Moses when read in the full context of the Torah which the Pharisees and Herod missed at the time of Christ and which many are still missing today?

According to Christ the pharisees were so confused at that time and refused to acknowledge their error about Moses and his teachings they were told that the kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth fruits. We know there was something wrong with their leaven and their Corban was making the word of God to none effect.

Boil and ripen

There are often multiple layers and meanings within Hebrew words and phrases to say nothing of the metaphors, idioms, and allegories.

Their does seem to be connection between ripe or first fruit and seething or boiling since the Hebrew word Bashal includes the idea of to grow ripe or ripen. That may have contributed to Augustine of Hippo rendering of the phrase into Latin as diebus quibus lactatur which is translated as “in the days when it suckles” which means when the kid is still sucking on its mother.

There is some argument for the accuracy of that interpretation but it does not fit well into the context of the biblical text and seems to fall short of the first fruit connection.

If we just consider the 1 Samuel 7:9 statement, "And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered [it for] a burnt offering wholly unto the LORD: and Samuel cried unto the LORD for Israel; and the LORD heard him." that would seem to directly contradict Augustine of Hippo's rendering.

The idea that the same word can mean boil and ripen is very common in the Hebrew language. We have seen this with Leaven and cruelty, Altars of unhewn stone and a gathering of men who are unregulated because they are separate and Belong top God. do not exercise authority one over the other like the Levites who belonged to God and could not go up by steps in a hierarchy if authority. This gives the people the option of misinterpreting everything or anything that may be inconvenient to believe. That flexibility of the language has allowed the Torah to survive.

Deeper meaning

But we should always realize there is a deeper spiritual meaning and message in all true sacred text. Even scriptures like Leviticus 22:28 "No animal from the herd or from the flock shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young." If you read some commentaries they clearly state that this verse was "only designed to remind the Israelites of the sacred relations which exist between parent and offspring, but was especially intended to keep up feelings of humanity."

There are more ancient Chaldee text that include the injunction, “My people the children of Israel, as our Father is merciful in heaven, so be ye merciful on earth.” This would be echoed by Christ in verses like Luke 6:36 "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful."

In Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary we even see the admonition, "Nor can the minister who loves the souls of the people, suffer them to continue in this dangerous delusion." While, many want to reduce spiritual revelation with physical acts that has never been the intent of the prophets. In the idea that putting your trust in rituals, physical ceremonies, and endless repetition of words in order draw you near God has more in common with witchcraft than Moses or Christ.

Is our faith a product of sound doctrine sealed in a world functioning by love with no covetous practices or works of iniquity?

Or are our own deeds those of the Nicolaitan who may say LORD, LORD but doeth no do the will of the father?

Have we become blind guides through false religion remaining blind in our vanity?

It it not the vain but the humble who will repent and see the truth.

Eating milk and meat

What some say is a dietary rule concerns the separation of meat and milk (i.e. all dairy products). We see this verse cited three times in the Torah that “You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.” (Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21), but none of them seem to have any direct explanations nor does it seem to fit the context of the text if we interpret it as a "food law about milk and meat".

While this prohibition is interpreted in many different ways, it seems to be the one which the many of modern Jews want to obey. But have they unmoored the metaphor from its meaning?

The idea of boil a kid in its mother’s milk does not necessarily imply its modern interpretation, and it apparently, according to some, was not even known at the end of the Second Temple period(approximately 600 years (516 BCE–70 CE)). It seems to be firmly established in the first centuries of the Common Era (CE) and some Jews practice this separating of milk and meat with an almost superstitious fervor to distinguishes religiously observant Jews from the non-observant.

Fortune telling

The meaning concerning prohibiting this combination of milk and meat has been suggested to be because there were other religions at that time that made a similar ritual of sacrificing of a kid or lamb and then cooking them in the milk of their mothers, to either invoke signs or the ability to foretell the future or even to generate fertility. But that again seems out of context where we find the quote.

A dietary mandate

There is the possibility that this is actually a dietary rule that protects the Israelites from indigestion or some ill effect that may result from such ingestion of a milk and meat cuisine. But according to SunFed Ranch, "marinating beef in milk creates a lightly acidic bath for the meat, tenderizing it without breaking down its proteins too much. The calcium in the milk reacts with the enzymes in the meat to gently soften the proteins, facilitating another tenderizing process." And then their is the cheese burgers and hamburger pizza argument.

But many Jews do indeed eat milk and then meat no matter how much time has passed since they ate the dairy (although you are expected to clean your mouth with water first). So if that is allowed the ritual seems to be nothing more than virtue signaling and does not explain why Moses put this "rule" in the location of the text.

Religious Rabbis

Over the centuries many rabbis have gradually built more restrictions around what they interpret as a commandment to ensure that no one might accidentally transgress what they interpret to be the Law.

Many of what they thought were laws, commandments, and statutes or ordinances in the Torah may have been simply been "judgements" or metaphors listed off as guidelines and have often been misinterpretations through the unmooring of meanings. Once their thinking has gone off course or strayed from the truth there is often a growing need to create complicated rituals and ceremonies to distract or redirect the people from the real meaning intended by Moses and other Prophets.

Sheep recognize each other with their individual scent, both lamb and mother do this a hundred times a day and in pitch darkness. Even if you slip another lamb behind her at birth without her seeing she may detect that it is not her lamb eventually. There are ways to trick her but as soon as a lamb is born they talk to each other and learn their sound and tones.

It has been suggested by shepherds in Israel that to boil a lamb in the milk of its own mother would be a lack of "sensitivity to the incredibly deep and close relations animals have with each other."

If the meaning of these three verses is about our lack of sensitivity for the mother to a lamb it would certainly have to be a metaphor about our own lack of sensitivity toward our neighbor as well.

Is this verse about our cruel hearts and our treatment of each other rather than merely a concern for the ewe's feelings?

Judging by its location in the text the real point of God's statement through Moses may also be about the kinds of love or charity for the generation to come, and even that given to the stranger in our midst.

Promise of a long life

There’s a biblical teaching known as Shiluach haken (“sending away the nest”(שילוח הקן)). It is saying that we should chase away the mother bird before taking her eggs or her young. It is also taught that a blessing of a long life will be your reward if you protect her from mourning the loss.

This promise of a long life for the compassionate seems to be an echoing the idea of a long life if we honor our father and mother.

Is there a connection in spirit if not in practice?

A kabbalistic interpretation of the passages is that "life comes first in order regarding death". Milk is also first in your diet. They also see life as light or represented by the color white, which would include dairy so it would need to be eaten first, and meat second since it is representing death.

But is this symbolic, almost cultic, or at least mystical, explanation missing a meaning a lot more obvious and practical?

This is actually about causing pain to others including animals. It is merely an echo of the statement earlier in Exodus of getting they leaven out of your house and your nation's borders because the practice of cruelty is the antitheses of righteousness. But if people want to think that leaven is about yeast in your bread instead of being about cruelty in the collection of the free bread shared in a daily ministration in what should be facilitated through Pure Religion.

This is warning in Deuteronomy 22:6–7 the same thing that Moses and Christ warned the people about with their prohibition concerning certain leaven.

What is the truth about milk and meat

Does this statement by Moses about seething a young kid in its mother's milk have anything to do with diet, lactation, fortune telling, or mysticism?

Is it about cookware and washing your pots and pans or even you mouth out before you touch them with meat or milk?

Are these verses merely metaphors and symbols of a deeper meaning and message and if we get the metaphor right will the understanding leaps in us if we have ears to hear?

Is it about avoiding a pattern of psychological cruelty like the cruelty found in the Leaven of the Pharisees?

What does it have to do with the context where we find this statement three times in the Torah?

Is it just about the two kinds of love and the way they manifest in day to day life, first in the family and then in the nation?

Both the boiling a kid in its own mothers milk and the Shiluach haken are believed to be prohibitions of undue cruelty by some but so in truth is the leaven bread if we want to understand the deeper meaning of getting the leaven out of your nation?

If mean had not unmoored the meaning intended by Moses they would know these things are about excessive compassion, legal charity, and the welfare state that degenerates the individual and the masses until the people become perfect savages and their whoredom becomes tyranny.

Eventually, they are both leaven and the "milk and meat" are associated with feasts and their national system of freewill offerings which is charity of the social safety net that Moses was teaching the people he had delivered from the bondage of Egypt. Jesus would eventually call the people back to that kingdom of God and His righteousness for their redemption.

"I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." 1 Corinthians 3:2.

Milk meat and feasts and offerings

Comments

Exodus 23:14 Three times keep a feast.

15V The feast of unleavened bread... and none shall appear before me empty:" It is a time to donate to the ministers of the tabernacle of the congregation.

16V "firstfruits of thy labours" go to the social welfare systems of Altars.

17 "all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD."

18V "Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning." Sacrifices are not forced and certainly not with cruelty and rigor/leaven.

"neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning". This about holding back the offering until later. You have to actually give it and not just pledge to give it later. We see this at Passover when the whole lamb must be shared with enough people that is all consumed.

19V A portion of the "firstfruits... bring into the house of the LORD thy God". This will support the entire welfare system of Israel binding the people with the social bonds of love and charity instead of the bands of the legal charity of Pharaoh's Egypt which like the Corban of the Pharisees makes the word of God to none effect.

19V "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk." Out of no where Moses puts this prohibition which becomes over time the milk and meat prohibition of modern Jews which chains their minds in the superstition of false religion.

21 "for my name [is] in him" is saying that the pattern of God's character is in his heart and mind.

22 But "if thou shalt indeed obey" then the law of cause and effect of the Law of Nature, the will of God will be to your protection and benefit.

Exodus 34 we see a repetition of this quote again with the reference of the firstfruits which was about the welfare system of Israel through charity and has nothing to do with any real dietary restrictions by God. Exodus 34:26 "The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk."

When we see this quote in Deuteronomy 14 we might associated with the dietary restrictions

As I read the text the dietary subject seems to end at "for thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God." and a new topic begins. The fact that "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk" was previously in the context of the charitable intake and distribution system of Israel it would seem more reasonable to connect the statement with the following verses which is again all about the charitable social safety net set up by Moses with the Levites and the priest to provide social welfare through faith, hope and charity rather than the force, fear and fealty used by the governments of the Gentiles and rulers like Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh and eventually Caesar and FDR.

Deuteronomy 14:22 "Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. 23 And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always. 24 And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; [or] if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: 25 Then shalt thou turn [it] into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: 26 And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household, 27 And the Levite that [is] within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee."

The tithe was a freewill offering. It was expected to be given but you could choose the Levite minister of your choice and tithe to him according to his service.

That freewill offering was the Corban of the Levites that not only made the word of God to effect but also would draw you near to God. When it became a forced offering under Herod and the Pharisees John the Baptist and eventually Jesus would condemn their Corban.

An important thing about charity is that it must strengthen the poor. The system of Sodom weakened the poor because it was legal charity through the exercising authority of the State which Jesus forbids. It is forbidden by all the prophets because it is the wages of unrighteousness and the dainties of rulers served on civil tables which are a snare and a trap.

Like milk and meat there are many examples of false interpretations: Stones of the Altars, Clay and Stone, Sophistry, Leaven, Sabbath, Breeches, fringe, Stoning, Naked...

If milk and meat represent types of love then milk represents the milk of human kindness but the meat represents tough love.

1 Corinthians 3:1 "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [even] as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [to bear it], neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I [am] of Apollos; are ye not carnal?"

Hebrews 5:11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. 12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which [be] the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk [is] unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, [even] those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Why is the statement about boiling meat in milk found in a unique section of Exodus which started with Moses recording his judgements in Exodus 21 to clarify the justice system of this new government of God and who they were to attend to the weightier matters and is specifically in Exodus 23 which is still addressing the wresting or perverting of the judgements of the people in their courts concerning taking no bribes, not oppressing strangers, and not having other gods meaning no other "ruling judges"?

This section was also explaining the feasts and how the people should not be coming to them empty handed and should be offering of their firstfruits which is repeating the next time Moses mentions. Do we understand the practical purpose and function in this kingdom of God of those offerings at the festival and the offerings of the firstfruits?

It seems strange and out of place for Moses to suddenly slip in this peculiar statement about boiling a kid or a lamb in its own mothers milk. Why would he do that?

Over the centuries numerous rabbis and theologians have tried to explain this verse and have some times created elaborate rituals and rules surrounding it insisting that people must adhere to their private interpretation. By keeping the people preoccupied with their questionable interpretations some of these have religious groups distracted the people from what Moses was really trying to say.

Have the confused and unmoored the metaphor from its meaning?

In the New Testament we see that a diet of milk only may keep people from comprehending the true doctrine of God according to Paul. If we will accept that meat and milk are metaphors like we see in the New Testament's use of the same terms we may find a clue to the intent and true meaning of the verse.

It would undoubtedly help if we understand the purpose and function of the Altars, Feasts, and the tithing by freewill offerings.

The alternative of Moses

Moses was creating an alternative form of government which does not make masses merchandise nor curse children like we saw when they were in the bondage Egypt.

Governments are meant to protect the people, establish boundaries including weights and measures, administer justice, and provide for the general welfare of the people. Moses form of government did all these things. The protection of the people from foreign invasion was by way of a militia. We will see the establishment of boundaries in Numbers and of course we already see social and justice boundaries written out in the ten statements written by God and the judgements of Moses recorded in the Torah.

Few people can explain how Moses set up a system to provide for the general welfare of the people but it exists write in the text. It was those Altars if clay and stone, the Feasts where no one came empty handed, where sons and daughters cared for their parents. When the Family and extended family broke down they would care for the widows and orphans through Pure Religion which called for the tithing by freewill offerings.

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We might be able to accept the meaning of the metaphor or at least it may become clearer if we understood that these things were a part of a social welfare system and social safety net for the people of Israel designed to confirm the social bonds unique to a free society and were the antitheses of the bands created by the city-states that offered system of free bread for the citizens who agreed to the social contracts which were so common at that time.

The Feasts were a way of cementing the social bonds of a free society with the freewill offerings required by the LORD. The people got together three times a year, renewed friendships and relationships, but also funded through those freewill offerings the Levites so that they could serve the tents of the congregation and take care of the needy through the practice of pure religion.

Religion was about a social safety net of societies. Civil religion was a snare but Pure Religion sets the captive free. The welfare system of many city states had a tendency to weaken the poor. The Corban of Herod and the Pharisees did that at the time of John the Baptist and Jesus.

In reading Exodus 23:19 some will say that any mixture of meat and milk is forbidden, but others say the reason for this statement about not cooking a kid in its own mother's milk is because it is a form of cruelty to the goat or ewe.

Sam Harris while debating Jordan Peterson about the value or even the evil in scripture, he made a feeble attempt to discredit the Bible with the ignorant statement that, "A goat is a goat, is a goat." In the Bible a goat is not always a goat.

If we only look at the context of this verse within the chapter it is difficult to even imagine that suddenly Moses is adding a food law in the middle of this chapter. Part of the problem is that people do not really grasp the function of priests in society and the purpose and functions of the Altars of clay and stone.

But it is not about the milk or the goat.

It is about love and righteousness.

Just as covetousness is idolatry we can also see that what is some times called "the milk of human kindness" can ruin the tough love required for a free society because it cooks the value of "tough love" which is the righteous meat of Christ's Gospel of the kingdom.

In Exodus 23:3 and in Leviticus 19:15 we are told "thou shalt not respect the person of the poor in his cause."

This same Hebrew text seen in Exodus 23:3 and in Leviticus 19:15 shows לֹ֥א תֶהְדַּ֖ר "lo ṯehdar" which means "You shall not show partiality" of the poor. This is why in Exodus 23:19 we see the prohibition of boiling meat in milk of a goat because to much automatic giving which is seen in systems of entitlements weakens the poor.

Examine what the sin of Sodom was all about and why free bread ruined the people of Rome and how it degenerates the masses because it is boiling meat and milk.

While the welfare system of a free nation nation has elements of the Macro it must begin in the Micro of the individual and their family. Charity, what Jesus calls love, begins at home but we are also told that to spare the rod spoils the child. Understanding why you do not boil meat in milk is why you do not spare the rod.

The legal charity of the social welfare of the exercising authority of the state which through covetous practices and the force of systems entitlements boil the righteousness in the virtue signaling of the milk of human kindness.

It is not a food law but a metaphor and an allegory like the prohibition against biting one another, a common purse or the cities of blood which are a cauldron of flesh.

Exodus 23:14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.

15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)

16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, [which is] in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.

19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

20 ¶ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name [is] in him.

22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

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Seethe in milk

What does it mean to Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

What are the Cities of blood? Are they also where you put flesh in a pot and cook the flesh of the people so that you may freely eat of that pot?

To "seethe a kid in his mother’s milk" is not about milk and cooking a baby goat and considering the context it must be about the milk of human love that is sacrificed for the love of her children.

The altars of God are altars of charity and love.

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The Bible does not say no work on the Sabbath but t o work first then take and earned rest. The rabbis decide you can't be throwing water on the ground, because it might cause a seed to sprout. Meanwhile they are greedy for benefit at the expense of their neighbor and children.

Isaiah 9:20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

"11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."Hebrews 5:11-14

I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.1 Corinthians 3:2

Behold, therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the east for a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee, and make their dwellings in thee: they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk." Ezekiel 25:4

And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him." Judges 4:19

And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens." Proverbs 27:27

For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that he would not shew them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. Joshua 5:6

For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." Hebrews 5:13

Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife." Proverbs 30:33

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." Hebrews 5:12

"That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O Lord." Jeremiah 11:5

Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk." Deuteronomy 14:21

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:" 1 Peter 2:2

"12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Hebrews 5:12-14

Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: 1 Samuel 6:7

12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. Hebrews 5:12-13

Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? 1 Corinthians 9:7