Deuteronomy 14–16

God’s Special People

14You are the children of the Lord your God. When someone dies, do not cut yourselves or shave your heads to show your sadness. ²You are holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.

³Do not eat anything the Lord hates. ⁴These are the animals you may eat: oxen, sheep, goats, ⁵deer, gazelle, roe deer, wild goats, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep. ⁶You may eat any animal that has a split hoof and chews the cud, ⁷but you may not eat camels, rabbits, or rock badgers. These animals chew the cud, but they do not have split hoofs, so they are unclean for you. ⁸Pigs are also unclean for you; they have split hoofs, but they do not chew the cud. Do not eat their meat or touch their dead bodies.

⁹There are many things that live in the water. You may eat anything that has fins and scales, ¹⁰but do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.

¹¹You may eat any clean bird. ¹²But do not eat these birds: eagles, vultures, black vultures, ¹³red kites, falcons, any kind of kite, ¹⁴any kind of raven, ¹⁵horned owls, screech owls, sea gulls, any kind of hawk, ¹⁶little owls, great owls, white owls, ¹⁷desert owls, ospreys, cormorants, ¹⁸storks, any kind of heron, the hoopoes, or bats.

¹⁹All insects with wings are unclean for you; do not eat them. ²⁰Other things with wings are clean, and you may eat them.

²¹Do not eat anything you find that is already dead. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are holy people, who belong to the Lord your God.

Do not cook a baby goat in its mother’s milk.

Giving One-Tenth

²²Be sure to save one-tenth of all your crops each year. ²³Take it to the place the Lord your God will choose where he is to be worshiped. There, where you will be together with the Lord, eat the tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and eat the animals born first to your herds and flocks. Do this so that you will learn to respect the Lord your God always. ²⁴But if the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped is too far away and he has blessed you so much you cannot carry a tenth, ²⁵exchange your one-tenth for silver. Then take the silver with you to the place the Lord your God shall choose. ²⁶Use the silver to buy anything you wish—cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or anything you wish. Then you and your family will eat and celebrate there before the Lord your God. ²⁷Do not forget the Levites in your town, because they have no land of their own among you.

²⁸At the end of every third year, everyone should bring one-tenth of that year’s crop and store it in your towns. ²⁹This is for the Levites so they may eat and be full. (They have no land of their own among you.) It is also for strangers, orphans, and widows who live in your towns so that all of them may eat and be full. Then the Lord your God will bless you and all the work you do.

The Special Seventh Year

15At the end of every seven years, you must tell those who owe you anything that they do not have to pay you back. ²This is how you must do it: Everyone who has loaned money must cancel the loan and not make a neighbor or relative pay it back. This is the Lord’s time for canceling what people owe. ³You may make a foreigner pay what is owed to you, but you must not collect what another Israelite owes you. ⁴But there should be no poor people among you, because the Lord your God will richly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own. ⁵He will bless you if you obey the Lord your God completely, but you must be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. ⁶The Lord your God will bless you as he promised, and you will lend to other nations, but you will not need to borrow from them. You will rule over many nations, but none will rule over you.

⁷If there are poor among you, in one of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be selfish or greedy toward them. ⁸But give freely to them, and freely lend them whatever they need. ⁹Beware of evil thoughts. Don’t think, “The seventh year is near, the year to cancel what people owe.” You might be mean to the needy and not give them anything. Then they will complain to the Lord about you, and he will find you guilty of sin. ¹⁰Give freely to the poor person, and do not wish that you didn’t have to give. The Lord your God will bless your work and everything you touch. ¹¹There will always be poor people in the land, so I command you to give freely to your neighbors and to the poor and needy in your land.

Letting Slaves Go Free

¹²If one of your own people sells himself to you as a slave, whether it is a Hebrew man or woman, that person will serve you for six years. But in the seventh year you must let the slave go free. ¹³When you let slaves go, don’t send them away without anything. ¹⁴Give them some of your flock, your grain, and your wine, giving to them as the Lord has given to you. ¹⁵Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God saved you. That is why I am commanding this to you today.

¹⁶But if your slave says to you, “I don’t want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and has a good life with you, ¹⁷stick an awl ⁿ through his ear into the door; he will be your slave for life. Also do this to a female slave.

¹⁸Do not think of it as a hard thing when you let your slaves go free. After all, they served you six years and did twice the work of a hired person. The Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

Rules About Firstborn Animals

¹⁹Save all the first male animals born to your herds and flocks. They are for the Lord your God. Do not work the first calf born to your oxen, and do not cut off the wool from the first lamb born to your sheep. ²⁰Each year you and your family are to eat these animals in the presence of the Lord your God, in the place he will choose to be worshiped. ²¹If an animal is crippled or blind or has something else wrong, do not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²²But you may eat that animal in your own town. Both clean and unclean people may eat it, as they would eat a gazelle or a deer. ²³But don’t eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

The Passover

16Celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God during the month of Abib, because it was during Abib that he brought you out of Egypt at night. ²As the sacrifice for the Passover to the Lord your God, offer an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped. ³Do not eat it with bread made with yeast. But for seven days eat bread made without yeast, the bread of suffering, because you left Egypt in a hurry. So all your life you will remember the time you left Egypt. ⁴There must be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Offer the sacrifice on the evening of the first day, and eat all the meat before morning; do not leave it overnight.

⁵Do not offer the Passover sacrifice in just any town the Lord your God gives you, ⁶but offer it in the place he will choose to be worshiped. Offer it in the evening as the sun goes down, which is when you left Egypt. ⁷Roast the meat and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. The next morning go back to your tents. ⁸Eat bread made without yeast for six days. On the seventh day have a special meeting for the Lord your God, and do not work that day.

The Feast of Weeks

⁹Count seven weeks from the time you begin to harvest the grain, ¹⁰and then celebrate the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God. Bring an offering as a special gift to him, giving to him just as he has blessed you. ¹¹Rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose to be worshiped. Everybody should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your town, the strangers, orphans, and widows living among you. ¹²Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully obey all these laws.

The Feast of Shelters

¹³Celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days, after you have gathered your harvest from the threshing floor and winepress. ¹⁴Everybody should rejoice at your Feast: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites, strangers, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. ¹⁵Celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God for seven days at the place he will choose, because the Lord your God will bless all your harvest and all the work you do, and you will be completely happy.

¹⁶All your men must come before the Lord three times a year to the place he will choose. They must come at these times: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters. No man should come before the Lord without a gift. ¹⁷Each of you must bring a gift that will show how much the Lord your God has blessed you.

Judges for the People

¹⁸Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you; they must judge the people fairly. ¹⁹Do not judge unfairly or take sides. Do not let people pay you to make wrong decisions, because that kind of payment makes wise people seem blind, and it changes the words of good people. ²⁰Always do what is right so that you will live and always have the land the Lord your God is giving you.

God Hates Idols

²¹Do not set up a wooden Asherah idol next to the altar you build for the Lord your God, ²²and do not set up holy stone pillars. The Lord your God hates them.