Deuteronomy 13–17

13“Prophets or interpreters of dreams may promise a miracle or a wonder, ²in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshipped before. Even if what they promise comes true, ³do not pay any attention to them. The Lord your God is using them to test you, to see if you love the Lord with all your heart. ⁴Follow the Lord and honour him; obey him and keep his commands; worship him and be faithful to him. ⁵But put to death any interpreters of dreams or prophets who tell you to rebel against the Lord, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Such people are evil and are trying to lead you away from the life that the Lord has commanded you to live. They must be put to death, in order to rid yourselves of this evil.

⁶“Even your brother or your son or your daughter or the wife you love or your closest friend may secretly encourage you to worship other gods, gods that you and your ancestors have never worshipped. ⁷One of them may encourage you to worship the gods of the people who live near you or the gods of those who live far away. ⁸But do not let him or her persuade you; do not even listen to them. Show them no mercy or pity, and do not protect them. ⁹Kill them! Be the first to stone them, and then let everyone else stone them too. ¹⁰Stone them to death! They tried to lead you away from the Lord your God, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹¹Then all the people of Israel will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing.

¹²“When you are living in the towns that the Lord your God gives you, you may hear ¹³that some worthless people of your nation have misled the people of their town to worship gods that you have never worshipped before. ¹⁴If you hear such a rumour, investigate it thoroughly; and if it is true that this evil thing did happen, ¹⁵then kill all the people in that town and all their livestock too. Destroy that town completely. ¹⁶Bring together all the possessions of the people who live there and pile them up in the town square. Then burn the town and everything in it as an offering to the Lord your God. It must be left in ruins for ever and never again be rebuilt. ¹⁷Do not keep for yourselves anything that was condemned to destruction, and then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger and show you mercy. He will be merciful to you and make you a numerous people, as he promised your ancestors, ¹⁸if you obey all his commands that I have given you today, and do what he requires.

A Forbidden Practice

14^*“You are the people of the Lord your God. So when you mourn for the dead, don’t gash yourselves or shave the front of your head, as other people do. ^2*You belong to the Lord your God; he has chosen you to be his own people from among all the peoples who live on earth.

Clean and Unclean Animals

³“Do not eat anything that the Lord has declared unclean. ⁴You may eat these animals: cattle, sheep, goats, ⁵deer, wild sheep, wild goats, or antelopes- ⁶any animals that have divided hoofs and that also chew the cud. ⁷But no animals may be eaten unless they have divided hoofs and also chew the cud. You may not eat camels, rabbits, or rock-badgers. They must be considered unclean; they chew the cud but do not have divided hoofs. ⁸Do not eat pigs. They must be considered unclean; they have divided hoofs but do not chew the cud. Do not eat any of these animals or even touch their dead bodies.

⁹“You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales, ¹⁰but anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales may not be eaten; it must be considered unclean.

¹¹“You may eat any clean bird. ^12–18But these are the kinds of birds you are not to eat: eagles, owls, hawks, falcons; buzzards, vultures, crows; ostriches; seagulls, storks, herons, pelicans, cormorants;^l hoopoes; and bats.

¹⁹“All winged insects are unclean; do not eat them. ²⁰You may eat any clean insect.

^21*“Do not eat any animal that dies a natural death. You may let the foreigners who live among you eat it, or you may sell it to other foreigners. But you belong to the Lord your God; you are his people.

“Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother’s milk.

The Law of the Tithe

^22*“Set aside a tithe—a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. ^23*Then go to the one place where the Lord your God has chosen to be worshipped; and there in his presence eat the tithes of your corn, wine, and olive oil, and the firstborn of your cattle and sheep. Do this so that you may learn to honour the Lord your God always. ^24*If the place of worship is too far from your home for you to carry there the tithe of the produce that the Lord has blessed you with, then do this: ^25*Sell your produce and take the money with you to the one place of worship. ^26*Spend it on whatever you want—beef, lamb, wine, beer—and there, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families are to eat and enjoy yourselves.

^27*“Do not neglect the Levites who live in your towns; they have no property of their own. ^28*At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in your towns. ^29*This food is for the Levites, since they own no property, and for the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. They are to come and get all they need. Do this, and the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

The Seventh Year

15“At the end of every seventh year you are to cancel the debts of those who owe you money. ²This is how it is to be done. All who have lent money to a fellow-Israelite are to cancel the debt; they must not try to collect the money; the Lord himself has declared the debt cancelled. ³You may collect what a foreigner owes you, but you must not collect what any of your own people owe you.

⁴“The Lord your God will bless you in the land that he is giving you. Not one of your people will be poor ⁵if you obey him and carefully observe everything that I command you today. ⁶The Lord will bless you, as he has promised. You will lend money to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any; you will have control over many nations, but no nation will have control over you.

^7*“If in any of the towns in the land that the Lord your God is giving you there is a fellow-Israelite in need, then do not be selfish and refuse to help him. ^8*Instead, be generous and lend him as much as he needs. ⁹Do not refuse to lend him something, just because the year when debts are cancelled is near. Do not let such an evil thought enter your mind. If you refuse to make the loan, he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty. ¹⁰Give to him freely and unselfishly, and the Lord will bless you in everything you do. ^11*There will always be some Israelites who are poor and in need, and so I command you to be generous to them.

The Treatment of Slaves

^12*“If a fellow-Israelite sells himself or herself^m to you as a slave, you are to release them after they have served you for six years. When the seventh year comes, you must let them go free. ^13*When you set them free, do not send them away empty-handed. ^14*Give to them generously from what the Lord has blessed you with—sheep, corn, and wine. ^15*Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God set you free; that is why I am now giving you this command.

^16*“But your slave may not want to leave; he may love you and your family and be content to stay. ^17*Then take him to the door of your house and there pierce his ear; he will then be your slave for life. Treat your female slave in the same way. ^18*Do not be resentful when you set a slave free; after all, the slave has served you for six years at half the cost of a hired servant.ⁿ Do this, and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

The First-Born Cattle and Sheep

^19*“Set aside for the Lord your God all the firstborn males of your cattle and sheep; don’t use any of these cattle for work and don’t shear any of these sheep. ²⁰Each year you and your family are to eat them in the Lord’s presence at the one place of worship. ²¹But if there is anything wrong with the animals, if they are crippled or blind or have any other serious defect, you must not sacrifice them to the Lord your God. ²²You may eat such animals at home. All of you, whether ritually clean or unclean, may eat them, just as you eat deer or antelope. ^23*But do not use their blood for food; instead, you must pour it out on the ground like water.

The Passover

16^*“Honour the Lord your God by celebrating Passover in the month of Abib; it was on a night in that month that he rescued you from Egypt. ^2*Go to the one place of worship and slaughter there one of your sheep or cattle for the Passover meal to honour the Lord your God. ^3*When you eat this meal, do not eat bread prepared with yeast. For seven days you are to eat bread prepared without yeast, as you did when you had to leave Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread—it will be called the bread of suffering—so that as long as you live you will remember the day you came out of Egypt, that place of suffering. ^4*For seven days no one in your land is to have any yeast in the house; and the meat of the animal killed on the evening of the first day must be eaten that same night. ^5–6*“Slaughter the Passover animals at the one place of worship—and nowhere else in the land that the Lord your God will give you. Do it at sunset, the time of day when you left Egypt. ^7*Boil the meat and eat it at the one place of worship; and the next morning return home. ^8*For the next six days you are to eat bread prepared without yeast, and on the seventh day assemble to worship the Lord your God, and do no work on that day.

The Harvest Festival

^9*“Count seven weeks from the time that you begin to harvest the corn, ^10*and then celebrate the Harvest Festival, to honour the Lord your God, by bringing him a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing he has given you. ^11*Be joyful in the Lord’s presence, together with your children, your…