Deuteronomy 14-17

1You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,

2for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

3You must not eat any detestable thing.

4These are the animals that you may eat: The ox, the sheep, the goat,

5the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

6You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud.

7But of those that chew the cud or have a completely divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: the camel, the rabbit, or the rock badger. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are unclean for you,

8as well as the pig; though it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you. You must not eat its meat or touch its carcass.

9Of all the creatures that live in the water, you may eat anything with fins and scales,

10but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales; it is unclean for you.

11You may eat any clean bird,

12but these you may not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

13the red kite, the falcon, any kind of kite,

14any kind of raven,

15the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,

16the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,

17the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,

18the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, or the bat.

19All flying insects are unclean for you; they may not be eaten.

20But you may eat any clean bird.

21You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

22You must be sure to set aside a tenth of all the produce brought forth each year from your fields.

23And you are to eat a tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks, in the presence of the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

24But if the distance is too great for you to carry that with which the LORD your God has blessed you, because the place where the LORD your God will choose to put His Name is too far away,

25then exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place the LORD your God will choose.

26Then you may spend the money on anything you desire: cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or anything you wish. You are to feast there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice with your household.

27And do not neglect the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

28At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce for that year and lay it up within your gates.

29Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.

1At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.

2This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed.

3You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you.

4There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance,

5if only you obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commandments I am giving you today.

6When the LORD your God blesses you as He has promised, you will lend to many nations but borrow from none; you will rule over many nations but be ruled by none.

7If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.

8Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs.

9Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

10Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand.

11For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land.

12If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.

13And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.

14You are to furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. You shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.

15Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.

16But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household and is well off with you,

17then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way.

18Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.

19You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to shear the firstborn of your flock.

20Each year you and your household are to eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD will choose.

21But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

22Eat it within your gates; both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it as they would a gazelle or a deer.

23But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

1Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

2You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name.

3You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.

4No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.

5You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you.

6You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt.

7And you shall roast it and eat it in the place the LORD your God will choose, and in the morning you shall return to your tents.

8For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the LORD your God, and you must not do any work.

9You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.

10And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you,

11and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

12Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes.

13You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.

14And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

15For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.

16Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.

17Everyone must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.

18You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

19Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

20Pursue justice, and justice alone, so that you may live, and you may possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

21Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you will build for the LORD your God,

22and do not set up for yourselves a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.

1You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep with any defect or serious flaw, for that is detestable to the LORD your God.

2If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the LORD your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God by transgressing His covenant

3and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven—which I have forbidden—

4and if it is reported and you hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the report is true and such an abomination has happened in Israel,

5you must bring out to your gates the man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you must stone that person to death.

6On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but he shall not be executed on the testimony of a lone witness.

7The hands of the witnesses shall be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. So you must purge the evil from among you.

8If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose.

9You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case.

10You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you,

11according to the terms of law they give and the verdict they proclaim. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision they declare to you.

12But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

13Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly.

14When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”

15you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the LORD your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers.

16But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’

17He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.

18When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

19It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes.

20Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.