The young of the goat. It was much used for food ( Genesis 27:9 ; 38:17 ; Judges 6:19 ; 14:6 ). The Mosaic law forbade to dress a kid in the milk of its dam, a law which is thrice repeated ( Exodus 23:19 ; 34:26 ; Deuteronomy 14:21 ). Among the various reasons assigned for this law, that appears to be the most satisfactory which regards it as "a protest against cruelty and outraging the order of nature." A kid cooked in its mother's milk is "a gross, unwholesome dish, and calculated to kindle animal and ferocious passions, and on this account Moses may have forbidden it. Besides, it is even yet associated with immoderate feasting; and originally, I suspect," says Dr. Thomson (Land and the Book), "was connected with idolatrous sacrifices."
Source
- part_of
source-manifest/easton— Easton's Bible Dictionary (PD)