Deuteronomy 14–16

14TH CHAPTER

Religious Practices—Leviticus 11:1–23

¹You are the children of the Lord your God. So when someone dies, don’t ⸤mourn⸥ by cutting yourselves or shaving bald spots on your head. ²You are people who are holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the people who live on earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his own special possession. 

³Never eat anything that is disgusting to the Lord. ⁴Here are the ⸤kinds of⸥ animals you may eat: oxen, sheep, goats, ⁵deer, gazelles, fallow deer,^awild goats, mountain goats, antelope, and mountain sheep. ⁶You may eat all animals that have completely divided hoofs and that also chew their cud. ⁷But some animals chew their cud, while others have completely divided hoofs. You may not eat these ⸤kinds of⸥ animals. They include camels, rabbits, and rock badgers. (Although they chew their cud, they don’t have divided hoofs. They are unclean^bfor you.) ⁸Also, you may not eat pigs. (Although their hoofs are divided, they don’t chew their cud.) Never eat their meat or touch their dead bodies. 

⁹Here’s what you may eat of every creature that lives in the water: You may eat any creature that has fins and scales. ¹⁰But never eat anything that doesn’t have fins and scales. It is unclean for you. 

¹¹You may eat any clean bird. ¹²But here are the birds that you should never eat: eagles, bearded vultures, black vultures, ¹³buzzards, all types of kites, ¹⁴all types of crows, ¹⁵ostriches, nighthawks, seagulls, all types of falcons, ¹⁶little owls, great owls, barn owls, ¹⁷pelicans, ospreys, cormorants, ¹⁸storks, all types of herons, hoopoes, and bats. 

¹⁹Every swarming, winged insect is also unclean for you. They must never be eaten. ²⁰However, you may eat any ⸤other kind of⸥ flying creature that is clean. 

²¹Never eat any creature that dies naturally. You may give it to the foreigners who live in your cities, and they may eat it. You may also sell it to foreigners who are visiting. But you are people who are holy to the Lord your God. 

Never cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. 

Giving God One-Tenth of Everything

²²Every year be sure to save a tenth of the crops harvested from whatever you plant in your fields. ²³Eat the tenth of your grain, new wine, and olive oil, and eat the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats in the presence of the Lord your God in the place he will choose to put his name. Then you will learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live. 

²⁴But the place the Lord your God will choose to put his name may be too far away. He may bless you with so much that you can’t carry a tenth of your income that far. ²⁵If so, exchange the tenth part of your income for silver. Take the silver with you, and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. ²⁶Use the silver to buy whatever you want: cattle, sheep, goats, wine, liquor—whatever you choose. Then you and your family will eat and enjoy yourselves there in the presence of the Lord your God. ²⁷Never forget to take care of the Levites who live in your cities. They have no land of their own as you have. 

²⁸At the end of every third year bring a tenth of that year’s crop, and store it in your cities. ²⁹Foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities may come to eat all they want. The Levites may also come because they have no land of their own as you have. Then the Lord your God will bless you in whatever work you do. 

15TH CHAPTER

The Seventh-Year Celebration

¹At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts. ²This is what you will do: If you’ve made a loan, don’t collect payment on the debt your neighbor still owes you. Don’t demand that your neighbor or relative pay you, because the ⸤time⸥ for suspending payments on debts has been proclaimed in the Lord’s honor. ³You may demand that a foreigner pay, but don’t collect payment on the debt another Israelite still owes you. ⁴In any case, there shouldn’t be any poor people among you, because the Lord your God will certainly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own possession. ⁵He will bless you only if you listen carefully to the Lord your God and faithfully obey all these commands I’m giving you today. ⁶The Lord your God will bless you, as he promised. You will make loans to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any of them. You will rule many nations, but no nation will ever rule you. 

⁷This is what you must do whenever there are poor Israelites in one of your cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ⁸Be generous to these poor people, and freely lend them as much as they need. Never be hard-hearted and tight-fisted with them.^a

⁹When the seventh year—the year when payments on debts are canceled—is near, you might be stingy toward poor Israelites and give them nothing. Be careful not to think these worthless thoughts. The poor will complain to the Lord about you, and you will be condemned for your sin. ¹⁰Be sure to give to them without any hesitation. When you do this, the Lord your God will bless you in everything you work for and set out to do. ¹¹There will always be poor people in the land. That’s why I command you to be generous to other Israelites who are poor and needy. 

¹²Whenever Hebrew men or women are sold to you as slaves, they will be your slaves for six years. In the seventh year you must let them go free. ¹³But when you let them go, don’t send them away empty-handed. ¹⁴Generously give them provisions—sheep from your flocks, grain from your threshing floor,^band wine from your winepress. Be as generous to them as the Lord your God has been to you. ¹⁵Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God freed you. That’s why I’m giving you this command today. 

¹⁶But suppose a male slave says to you, “I don’t want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is happy with you. ¹⁷Then take an awl and pierce it through his ear lobe into a door, and he will be your slave for life. Do the same to a female slave ⸤if she doesn’t want to leave⸥. 

¹⁸If you have to let your slave go free, it won’t be a hardship for you. It would have cost you twice as much to hire someone to do the same work for those six years. Besides, the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. 

Setting Aside Firstborn Males for God

¹⁹You must dedicate every firstborn male from your herds and flocks to the Lord your God. Never use a firstborn ox for work, and never shear a firstborn sheep. ²⁰Every year you and your family must eat these animals in the presence of the Lord your God in the place the Lord will choose. ²¹But if an animal is lame or blind or has any other serious defect—never sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²²Eat it in your city. Clean and unclean^cpeople may eat them together as if they were eating a gazelle or a deer. ²³But never eat the blood. Pour it on the ground like water. 

16TH CHAPTER

Three Major Festivals

¹Honor the Lord your God by celebrating Passover in the month of Abib. In the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt at night. ²Slaughter an animal from your flock or herd as the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God. Do this at the place where the Lord will choose for his name to live. ³Never eat leavened bread with the meat from this sacrifice. Instead, for seven days you must eat unleavened bread at this festival. (It is the bread of misery because you left Egypt in a hurry.) Eat this bread so that, as long as you live, you will remember the day you left Egypt. ⁴There should be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Never leave until morning any of the meat you slaughter on the evening of the first day. 

⁵You’re not allowed to slaughter the animals for Passover in any of the cities the Lord your God is giving you. ⁶Instead, slaughter your animals for Passover in the place where the Lord your God will choose for his name to live. Do this in the evening as the sun goes down. This is the same time you did it when you left Egypt. ⁷Cook the meat, and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. In the morning you may go back to your tents. ⁸For six days eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day hold a religious assembly dedicated to the Lord your God. Don’t do any work that day. 

⁹Count seven weeks from the time you start harvesting grain. ¹⁰Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God. Bring a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. ¹¹Enjoy yourselves in the presence of the Lord your God along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites who live in your cities, the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live among you. Enjoy yourselves at the place the Lord your God will choose for his name to live. ¹²Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and obey these laws carefully. 

¹³After you have gathered the grain from your threshing floor^aand made your wine, celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days. ¹⁴Enjoy yourselves at the festival along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities. ¹⁵For seven days you will celebrate this festival dedicated to the Lord your God in the place he will choose. You will enjoy yourselves, because the Lord your God will bless all your harvest and all your work. 

¹⁶Three times a year all your men must come into the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. But no one may come into the presence of the Lord without an offering. ¹⁷Each man must bring a gift in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given him. 

Administering Justice

¹⁸Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every city that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people fairly. ¹⁹Never pervert justice. Instead, be impartial. Never take a bribe, because bribes blind wise people and deny justice to those who are in the right. ²⁰Strive for nothing but justice…