Deuteronomy 14

Clean and Unclean Food

1 Ye are the sons of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness over your eyes for the dead. 2 For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD has chosen thee to be a unique people unto himself from among all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth.

3 Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. 4 These are the animals which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5 the hart and the roebuck and the buffalo and the wild goat and the unicorn (rhinoceros) and the wild ox and the mountain goat, 6 and every animal that parts the hoof and cleaves the cleft into two claws and chews the cud among the beasts that ye shall eat. 7 Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of those that chew the cud or of those that divide the cloven hoof: the camel and the hare and the coney, for they chew the cud, but do not divide the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you; 8 and the swine, because it divides the hoof, yet does not chew the cud, it is unclean unto you. Ye shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their dead carcase.

9 These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat, 10 but whatever does not have fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.

11 Of all clean birds ye shall eat. 12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle and the ossifrage and the ospray 13 and the glede and the kite and the vulture after his kind 14 and every raven after his kind 15 and the owl and the night hawk and the cuckow and the hawk after his kind 16 the little owl and the great owl and the swan 17 and the pelican and the gier eagle and the cormorant 18 and the stork and the heron after her kind and the lapwing and the bat. 19 And every serpent that flies shall be unclean unto you; they shall not be eaten. 20 But of all clean fowls ye may eat.

21 Ye shall not eat of any thing that died of itself; thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates that he may eat it, or thou may sell it unto an alien; for thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not cook a kid in his mother’s milk.

Tithes

22 Thou shalt without fail tithe all the increase of thy seed that thy field brings forth each year. 23 And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose for his name to dwell, the tithe of thy grain, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstborn of thy cows and of thy sheep, that thou may learn to fear the LORD thy God always. 24 And if the way is too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, or if the place is too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God has blessed thee, 25 then shalt thou sell it for money and bind up the money in thy hand and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose; 26 and thou shalt give that money for whatever thy soul desires, for cows or for sheep or for wine or for strong drink or for whatever thy soul desires; and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thine household. 27 And thou shalt not forsake the Levite that dwells within thy gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with thee.

28 At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year and shalt lay it up within thy gates. 29 And the Levite, who has no part nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within thy gates, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied, that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hands which thou doest.

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