1   You are the sons of the Lord your God: you shall not gash yourselves nor shave your forelocks ^note in mourning for the dead. 2   You are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you out of all peoples on earth to be his special possession.

3    4   You shall not eat any abominable thing. These are the animals you may eat: 5   ox, sheep, goat, buck, gazelle, roebuck, wild-goat, white-rumped deer, long-horned antelope, and rock-goat. 6   You may eat any animal which has a parted foot or a cloven hoof and also chews the cud; 7   those which only chew the cud or only have a parted or cloven hoof you may not eat. These are: the camel, the hare, and the rock-badger, ^note because they chew the cud but do not have cloven hoofs; you shall regard them as unclean; 8   and the pig, because it has a cloven hoof but does not chew the cud, you shall regard as unclean. You shall not eat their flesh or even touch their dead carcasses. 9   Of creatures that live in water you may eat all those that have fins and scales, 10   but you may not eat any that have neither fins nor scales; you shall regard them as unclean. 11    12   You may eat all clean birds. These are the birds you may not

God's laws delivered by Moses eat: 13   the griffon-vulture, ^note the black vulture, the bearded vulture, ^note the kite, ^note 14    15   every kind of falcon, ^note every kind of crow, ^note the desert-owl, the short-eared owl, 16   the long-eared owl, every kind of hawk, the tawny owl, 17   the screech-owl, the little owl, the horned owl, the osprey, the fisher-owl, 18   the stork, ^note every kind of cormorant, the hoopoe, and the bat.

19   All teeming winged creatures you shall regard as unclean; they may not be eaten. 20   You may eat every clean insect.

21   You shall not eat anything that has died a natural death. You shall give it to the aliens who live in your settlements, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

22   Year by year you shall set aside a tithe of all the produce of your seed, of everything that grows on the land. 23   You shall eat it in the presence of the Lord your God in the place which he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—the tithe of your corn and new wine and oil, and the first-born of your cattle and sheep, so that for all time you may learn to fear the Lord your God. 24   When the Lord your God has blessed you with prosperity, and the place which he will choose to receive his Name is far from you and the journey too great for you to be able to carry your tithe, then you may exchange it for silver. 25   You shall tie up the silver and take it with you to the place which the Lord your God will choose. 26   There you shall spend it as you will on cattle or sheep, wine or strong drink, or whatever you desire; you shall consume it there with rejoicing, both you and your family, in the presence of the Lord your God. 27   You must not neglect the Levites who live in your settlements; for they have no holding or patrimony among you.

28   At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your 29   produce for that year and leave it in your settlements so that the Levites, who have no holding or patrimony among you, and the aliens, orphans, and widows in your settlements may come and eat their fill. If you do this the Lord your God will bless you in everything to which you set your hand.

Previous section

Next section