Seethe

In biblical usage, "to seethe" means to boil or cook by boiling. The word appears most significantly in the prohibition repeated three times in the Pentateuch: "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk" (Ex. 23:19; 34:26; Deut. 14:21). This commandment, whose original rationale is debated, became the scriptural foundation for the extensive Jewish laws of kashrut (dietary law) separating meat and dairy. The prohibition may have repudiated a Canaanite cultic practice or expressed a humanitarian sensitivity against using a mother's nourishment to destroy her offspring. The word also appears in the description of Elisha's miraculously purified stew (2 Kgs. 4:38) and Ezekiel's allegory of the seething pot (Ezek. 24:3–14).