Beginning

14 Moses: You’re the children of the Eternal, your True God, so don’t cut yourselves or shave off the front of your hair to honor those who die. ² Remember you are people who have been set apart for Him; He has chosen you to be His own possession out of all the peoples on the earth.

³ Don’t eat anything that’s forbidden. ⁴ Here are some examples of land animals you can eat: oxen from your herds; sheep and goats from your flocks; ⁵ deer, gazelles, roebucks, wild goats, ibexes, antelopes, and mountain sheep, all from the wild. ⁶ The rule is, you can eat any of the animals that has a divided hoof (that is, a hoof separated into two sections) and chews cud. ⁷ You can’t eat an animal just because it chews cud or just because it has a divided hoof; both things have to be true. So, for example, the camel, the rabbit, and the rock badger are impure and can’t be eaten because even though they chew cud, they don’t have a divided hoof. ⁸ The pig is also unclean and can’t be eaten because even though it has a divided hoof, it doesn’t chew cud. Don’t eat the meat of any ritually unclean animals. Don’t even touch their carcasses when they die.

⁹ You can eat anything that lives in the water if it has fins and scales, ¹⁰ but if it doesn’t have fins and scales, then don’t eat it; it’s unclean to you.

¹¹ You can eat any clean bird. ^12-18 But here are some examples of birds you shouldn’t eat: birds that hunt and kill, such as the eagle, the falcon, and all kinds of hawks; birds that eat dead flesh, such as the red kite and any other kind of kite, the vulture, the buzzard, and any kind of raven; things that fly around in the night instead of during the day, such as the horned owl, screech owl, little owl, great owl, white owl, and the bat; birds that feed in the water, such as the seagull, pelican, carrion vulture, cormorant, stork, and every kind of heron; and birds that dig in the ground for their food, such as the hoopoe. ¹⁹ And don’t eat anything that flies in swarms, such as insects, because they are unclean. ²⁰ But you can eat anything that flies if it is ritually clean.

²¹ Don’t eat any meat from an animal you find dead of natural causes because its blood remains in the meat. You may give it to the foreigners in your city, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreign merchant. But don’t eat it yourself; you are people who have been set apart for the Eternal your God. Don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Moses: ²² Every year, when the seeds you’ve sown in your fields have grown into crops, make sure you set aside a tenth of the produce. ²³ Bring this tenth of the grain, oil, and new wine from that year’s crop, as well as all firstborn animals from your herds and flocks, to the place the Eternal your God will choose as a place for His name, and have a feast there in His presence. If you do this each year, you’ll learn to fear the Eternal your God always. ²⁴ If the place where He chooses to put His name is far from where you live, and the distance is too great for you to carry a tenth of that year’s produce there—particularly if He has blessed you— ²⁵ then sell everything you would have carried and bring the money yourself to the place the Eternal your God will choose. ²⁶ When you get there, you can still have a celebration. Use some of the money to buy whatever you crave: cattle or sheep, wine or strong drink, or any other special thing you’d really like. You and your household can have a feast in His presence. ²⁷ Be sure to invite any Levites who live in your city. Be especially generous to them because they won’t have any territory and property of their own to pass down to their children as you do.

^28-29 But at the end of every third year, keep a tenth of the year’s produce in your own town instead and give it to the needy people there: the Levites—whose tribe won’t have any territory and property of its own to pass down—the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows. Let them come and take as much as they want to eat for as long as these supplies last. If you do this, the Eternal your God will bless you in everything you do.

15 Moses: At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts. ² This is how it will work: anyone who has made a loan to someone else will just let the debtor keep whatever he’s borrowed. That is, if the loan was made to a fellow citizen, to another Israelite, the lender won’t demand repayment because it has been announced that the Eternal is canceling all the debts of His servants. ³ If you’ve made a loan to a foreigner, you can still demand repayment, but let your fellow Israelites keep whatever they’ve borrowed from you. ^4-5 However, ideally, there shouldn’t be any poor people among you. If you listen attentively to the voice of the Eternal your God and carefully obey all the commands I’m giving you today, then the Eternal will bless you with great prosperity in the land He’s giving you to live in and pass down within your family. ⁶ Because the Eternal your God will bless you as He promised, you will lend to many nations, but you won’t borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they won’t rule over you.

⁷ If, in one of the towns in the land the Eternal your God is giving you, a fellow Israelite does become poor, don’t ignore him and limit your generosity just because the debt will be forgiven. ⁸ Open your hand willingly, and generously lend as much as is needed at the time. ⁹ Don’t think like this: “It’s almost the seventh year when debts are canceled. If I lend anything to this other person now, I’ll never get it back!” If you think this way, you’ll be hostile toward your neighbors and you won’t give them anything. They’ll cry out to the Eternal against you, and He’ll consider what you’ve done a sin. ¹⁰ So give generously to the person in need. Don’t feel badly about this when you’re doing it; because of your generosity, the Eternal your God will bless you in everything you do, in every project you begin. ¹¹ Unfortunately, there will always be poor people throughout the country. That’s why I’m giving you this command: give generously to your fellow Israelite, to the poor and needy in the land.

¹² If a fellow Israelite, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you as a slave, only make that person serve you for six years. In the seventh year, set him free from your service. ¹³ And don’t send him away destitute! ¹⁴ Provide generously: give sheep and goats, grain and wine. Give some of what the Eternal your God has blessed you with. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and He liberated you from another master so you could serve Him. That’s why I’m commanding you today to do this. ^16-18 Don’t feel you’ve been cheated when you set your slave free. It would have cost you twice as much to hire someone to do the same work over those six years, and He will bless you in everything you do because of your generosity. But perhaps your slave will say to you at the end of the six years, “I don’t want to be set free! I love you and your whole family. It’s really good for me to be here with you.” You can accept a slave like this into lifetime service. Perform a special ceremony to mark his new status. Have the slave stand right next to the door of your house, take an awl, and drive it through the slave’s ear lobe into the door. Then pull it out. This will make marks in the ear lobe and in the door that will symbolize the slave. Either a male or a female slave can enter lifetime service this way with this physical mark.

¹⁹ If the firstborn of any animal in your herd or flock is a male, set it apart or consecrate it for the Eternal your God. Don’t put the firstborn of any ox to work, and don’t shear your firstborn sheep. These animals already belong to the Eternal One, so their labor and products belong to Him too. ²⁰ Bring them every year to the place the Eternal will choose, and make them part of the feast you and your household eat in the presence of the Eternal your God. ²¹ But if the firstborn has some defect such as lameness or blindness—any serious problem—don’t offer it as a sacrifice to Him. ²² Instead eat it as a regular meal in your own city. This is not a sacred meal, so people don’t need to be ritually pure to eat it. It will be like eating a gazelle or a deer. ²³ But don’t eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

16 Moses: During the month of Abib at the beginning of spring, celebrate Passover in honor of the Eternal, your True God. In that month, He brought you out of Egypt at night. ² Take an animal from your herd or flock, go to the place He will choose for His name, and offer a Passover sacrifice to the Eternal your God. ³ Don’t eat any leavened bread with it. Eat unleavened bread during the seven days of this celebration because “suffering bread” is what you made when you quickly left your suffering in Egypt. If you eat it again each year, you’ll always remember the day you left Egypt. ⁴ For these seven days, no one in the whole country should have any yeast. And none of the meat from the sacrifice you offer on the first night of the celebration should be left over on the next day. ⁵ Don’t offer the Passover sacrifice in any of the other cities the Eternal your God is giving you. ⁶ Even if it’s some distance, make the journey to the place He will choose for His name. Offer the Passover sacrifice in that place, in the evening, at sunset—the time when you left Egypt. ⁷ Cook it, and eat it in the place He chooses. In the morning, you can return to your tents, ⁸ but you must still only eat unleavened bread for the next six days. On the seventh day, the last day of the celebration, soberly gather together to worship Him. Don’t do any work on that day.

^9-10 Another celebration the Eternal your God wants you to have is the Feast of Weeks. Hold this celebration seven weeks after you first begin to cut and harvest the barley in your fields. Each of you will choose something to contribute out of what He has blessed you with. ¹¹ Go to the place He chooses for His name; and have a celebration there in His presence with your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your city. ¹² Remember you were slaves in Egypt, and obey these regulations carefully.

¹³ Later in the year, at the end of the harvest after you’ve finished threshing all your grain and making all your wine, celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days.

¹⁴ Celebrate with your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your city. ¹⁵ Celebrate for seven days in honor of the Eternal your God, in the place the Eternal will choose. The Eternal your God will bless you with abundant produce; He will bless everything you do, and you’ll have a lot to celebrate! ¹⁶ Three times each year, every male Israelite must appear before Him in the place He chooses for the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), for the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and for the Feast of Shelters (Tabernacles). Don’t come empty-handed! ¹⁷ Decide what amount you want to contribute voluntarily out of what He has blessed you with, and bring that as a gift.

Moses: ¹⁸ In each of the cities the Eternal your God is giving you, appoint tribal judges and representatives who will decide cases for the people honestly and fairly.

(to these future judges) ¹⁹ Don’t bend the rules for anyone. Don’t favor the rich and powerful, and never take a bribe! A bribe makes people who would decide cases wisely overlook injustice, and it makes people who would be honest give false testimony. ²⁰ Justice! Justice! That’s what you’re after. Then you’ll keep living in the land He is giving you.

²¹ When you build an altar to the Eternal your God, don’t ever put any kind of sacred wooden pole^[a] next to it, ²² and don’t ever set up a monolith or stone pillar. He hates these things!