Deuteronomy 14

Clean and Unclean Animals

1“You are 1sons of the Lord your God; 2you shall not cut yourselves nor 3shave a bald spot 4above your forehead for the dead. 2For you are 5a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a 6people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

3“7You shall not eat any detestable thing. 48These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 59the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6And any animal that has a divided hoof and has its hoofs split in two, and 10chews the cud, among the animals, 11that animal you may eat. 7However, you are not to eat these among the ones that 12chew the cud, or among those that have the hoof divided in 13two: the camel, the 14rabbit, and the rock hyrax, for though they 15chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are unclean to you. 8And the pig, because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, nor touch their carcasses.

9“These you may eat of everything that is in the water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, 10but anything that does not have fins and scales, you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

11“You may eat any clean bird. 12But 16these are the ones that you shall not eat: the 17eagle and the vulture and the 18buzzard, 13and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, 14and every raven in its kind, 15and the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, and the hawk in their kinds, 16the little owl, the 19great owl, the white owl, 17the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, 18the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. 19And all the swarming insects with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. 20You may eat any clean bird.

21“20You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger who is in your 21town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a stranger; for you are 22a holy people to the Lord your God. 23You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

22“You 24shall certainly tithe all the produce from 25what you sow, which comes from the field every year. 23You shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God, 26at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may 27learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24But if the 28distance is so great for you that you are not able to 29bring the tithe, since the place where the Lord your God chooses 30to set His name is too far away from you when the Lord your God blesses you, 25then you shall 31exchange it for money, and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. 26And you may spend the money on whatever your 32heart desires: on oxen, sheep, wine, other strong drink, or whatever your 33heart 34desires; and 35there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. 27Also you shall not neglect 36the Levite who is in your 37town, 38for he has no portion or inheritance among you.

28“39At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and you shall deposit it in your 40town. 29And the Levite, 41because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and 42the stranger, the 43orphan, and the widow who are in your 44town, shall come and 45eat and be satisfied, in order that 46the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.