Deuteronomy 14

Revised Standard Version

Pagan Practices Forbidden

14 “You are the sons of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. ² For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.

Clean and Unclean Foods

³ “You shall not eat any abominable thing. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the hart, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain-sheep. ⁶ Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two, and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. ⁷ Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: The camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you. ⁸ And the swine, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcases you shall not touch.

⁹ “Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: Whatever has fins and scales you may eat. ¹⁰ And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ “You may eat all clean birds. ¹² But these are the ones which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, ¹³ the buzzard, the kite, after their kinds; ¹⁴ every raven after its kind; ¹⁵ the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk, after their kinds; ¹⁶ the litle owl and the great owl, the water hen ¹⁷ and the pelican, the carrion vulture and the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, the heron, after their kinds; the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹ And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. ²⁰ All clean winged things you may eat.

²¹ “You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your towns, that he 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.

Regulations concerning Tithes

²² “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed, which comes forth from the field year by year. ²³ And before the Lord your God, in the place which he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and flock; that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to bring the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, ²⁵ then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses, ²⁶ and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷ And you shall not forsake the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.

²⁸ “At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your produce in the same year, and lay it up within your towns; ²⁹ and the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled; that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.