Deuteronomy 14

Improper Mourning

14“You are ^athe children of the Lord your God; ^byou shall not cut yourselves nor ¹shave the front of your head for the dead. ^2cFor you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Clean and Unclean Meat

^3d“You shall not eat any ²detestable thing. ^4eThese are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ³mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. ⁷Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. ⁸Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh ^for touch their dead carcasses.

^9g“These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. ¹⁰And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹“All clean birds you may eat. ^12hBut these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; ¹⁴every raven after its kind; ¹⁵the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; ¹⁶the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, ¹⁷the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, ¹⁸the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.

¹⁹“Also ⁱevery ⁴creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; ^jthey shall not be eaten.

²⁰“You may eat all clean birds.

^21k“You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; ^lfor you are a holy people to the Lord your God.

^m“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Tithing Principles

²²ⁿ“You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. ^23oAnd you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of ^pthe firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or ^qif the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, ²⁵then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall ^rrejoice, you and your household. ²⁷You shall not ⁵forsake the ^sLevite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

^28t“At the end of every third year you shall bring out the ^utithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. ²⁹And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.