Ceremonially Clean and Unclean Animals

14 “Since you are the people of the Lord your God, never cut yourselves or shave the hair above your foreheads in mourning for the dead. ² You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.

³ “You must not eat any detestable animals that are ceremonially unclean. ⁴ These are the animals^[a] you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the addax, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

⁶ “You may eat any animal that has completely split hooves and chews the cud, ⁷ but if the animal doesn’t have both, it may not be eaten. So you may not eat the camel, the hare, or the hyrax.^[b] They chew the cud but do not have split hooves, so they are ceremonially unclean for you. ⁸ And you may not eat the pig. It has split hooves but does not chew the cud, so it is ceremonially unclean for you. You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses.

⁹ “Of all the marine animals, you may eat whatever has both fins and scales. ¹⁰ You may not, however, eat marine animals that do not have both fins and scales. They are ceremonially unclean for you.

¹¹ “You may eat any bird that is ceremonially clean. ¹² These are the birds you may not eat: the griffon vulture, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, ¹³ the kite, the falcon, buzzards of all kinds, ¹⁴ ravens of all kinds, ¹⁵ the eagle owl, the short-eared owl, the seagull, hawks of all kinds, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the barn owl, ¹⁷ the desert owl, the Egyptian vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, herons of all kinds, the hoopoe, and the bat.

¹⁹ “All winged insects that walk along the ground are ceremonially unclean for you and may not be eaten. ²⁰ But you may eat any winged bird or insect that is ceremonially clean.

²¹ “You must not eat anything that has died a natural death. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town, or you may sell it to a stranger. But do not eat it yourselves, for you are set apart as holy to the Lord your God.

“You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

The Giving of Tithes

²² “You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. ²³ Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored—and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.

²⁴ “Now when the Lord your God blesses you with a good harvest, the place of worship he chooses for his name to be honored might be too far for you to bring the tithe. ²⁵ If so, you may sell the tithe portion of your crops and herds, put the money in a pouch, and go to the place the Lord your God has chosen. ²⁶ When you arrive, you may use the money to buy any kind of food you want—cattle, sheep, goats, wine, or other alcoholic drink. Then feast there in the presence of the Lord your God and celebrate with your household. ²⁷ And do not neglect the Levites in your town, for they will receive no allotment of land among you.

²⁸ “At the end of every third year, bring the entire tithe of that year’s harvest and store it in the nearest town. ²⁹ Give it to the Levites, who will receive no allotment of land among you, as well as to the foreigners living among you, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, so they can eat and be satisfied. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all your work.

Introduction

1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning,^[a] whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. ² This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.^[b]

Living in the Light

⁵ This is the message we heard from Jesus^[c] and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. ⁶ So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. ⁷ But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

⁸ If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. ⁹ But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

Psalm 136