Deutéronome 14

Children of the LORD

¹You are children of the LORD your God. Do not gash yourselves or shave a bald patch on your foreheads in mourning for the dead. ²For you are a people set apart as holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his own special treasure.

Clean and unclean food

³Do not eat anything detestable. ⁴These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep and the goat, ⁵the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.^{a 6}You may eat any animal that both chews the cud and has a hoof split fully into two. ⁷Yet you must not eat these, even though they chew the cud or have split hooves: the camel, the hare and the rock badger. They chew the cud but do not have split hooves, so they are unclean for you.^{b 8}The pig has split hooves but does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. Do not eat any of their meat, and do not touch them when they are dead.

⁹Among the creatures of the water, any that have fins and scales are yours to eat. ¹⁰But do not eat anything without fins and scales; it is unclean for you.

¹¹You may eat any clean bird. ¹²But these are the ones you must not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,^{cd 13}the red kite, the black kite, the various kinds of kite,^{ef 14}every kind of raven, ¹⁵the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, the various kinds of falcon,^{gh 16}the little owl, the eagle owl, the barn owl,^{i 17}the desert owl, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,^{j 18}the stork, the various kinds of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.^{k 19}All winged swarming creatures are unclean for you. They must not be eaten.^{l 20}But you may eat any clean winged creature. ²¹Do not eat anything that has died on its own. The outsider living in your towns may have it to eat if you give it to them, or a foreigner may buy it from you. For you are a people set apart as holy to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.^m

The yearly tithe

²²Year after year, be sure to set aside a tithe of all the crops that grow from the seed you sow in the field.^{n 23}Eat it before the LORD your God, in the place he chooses as a dwelling for his name: the tithe of your grain, your new wine and your olive oil, and the firstborn of your cattle and your flocks. In this way you will learn to fear the LORD your God at all times. ²⁴If the journey is too long for you and you cannot carry it, because 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 with plenty, ²⁵then turn it into money. Tie up the money and carry it with you to the place the LORD your God chooses. ²⁶Spend the money on whatever you wish: cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or anything else you would like. Then eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷And do not neglect the Levite living in your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

The tithe of the third year

²⁸At the end of every third year, bring out the whole tithe of that year’s produce and store it in your towns.^{o 29}Then the Levite, who has no portion or inheritance among you, and the outsider, the fatherless and the widow who live in your towns may come and eat until they are full, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work you do.