Beginning

God’s Special People

14 You are the children of the Lord your God. When someone dies, do not cut yourselves or shave your heads to show your sadness. ² You are holy people. You belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.

³ Do not eat anything the Lord hates. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goats, ⁵ deer, gazelle, roe deer, wild goats, ibex, antelope and mountain sheep. ⁶ You may eat any animal that has a split hoof and chews the cud. ⁷ But you may not eat camels, rabbits or rock badgers. These animals chew the cud, but their feet are not divided. So they are unclean for you. ⁸ Pigs are also unclean for you. They have split hooves, but they do not chew the cud. Do not eat their meat or touch their dead bodies.

⁹ There are many things that live in the water. You may eat anything that has fins and scales. ¹⁰ But do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.

¹¹ You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But do not eat these birds: eagles, vultures, black vultures, ¹³ red kites, falcons, any kind of kite, ¹⁴ any kind of raven, ¹⁵ horned owls, screech owls, seagulls, any kind of hawk, ¹⁶ little owls, great owls, white owls, ¹⁷ desert owls, ospreys, cormorants, ¹⁸ storks, any kind of heron, the hoopoes or bats.

¹⁹ All insects with wings are unclean for you. Do not eat them. ²⁰ Other things with wings are clean. You may eat them.

²¹ Do not eat anything you find that is already dead. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town. He may eat it. Or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are holy people. You belong to the Lord your God.

Do not cook a baby goat in its mother’s milk.

Giving One-Tenth

²² Be sure to save one-tenth of all your crops each year. ²³ Take it to the place the Lord your God will choose where he is to be worshiped. There you will be together with the Lord. There eat the tenth of your grain, new wine and oil. And eat the animals born first to your herds and flocks. Then you will learn to respect the Lord your God always. ²⁴ But the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped might be too far away. And he may have blessed you so much you cannot carry a tenth. ²⁵ If so, exchange your one-tenth for silver. Then take the silver with you to the place the Lord your God shall choose. ²⁶ Use the silver to buy anything you wish. You may buy cattle, sheep, wine, beer or anything you wish. Then you and your family will eat and celebrate there before the Lord your God. ²⁷ Do not forget the Levites in your town. They have no land of their own among you.

²⁸ At the end of every third year, everyone should bring one-tenth of that year’s crop. Store it in your towns. ²⁹ This is for the Levites so they may eat and be full. (They have no land of their own among you.) It is also for strangers, orphans and widows who live in your towns. All of them may eat and be full. Then the Lord your God will bless you and all the work you do.

The Special Seventh Year

15 At the end of every seven years, you must forget about collecting what people owe you. ² This is how you must do it: Everyone who has loaned money must forget the loan. He must not make his neighbor or brother pay it back. This is the Lord’s time for canceling what people owe. ³ You may make a foreigner pay what he owes you. But you must not collect what your brother owes you. ⁴ But there should be no poor people among you. The Lord your God will richly bless you in the land he is giving you to own. ⁵ He will bless you if you obey him completely. But you must be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. ⁶ The Lord your God will bless you as he promised. You will lend to other nations. But you will not need to borrow from them. You will rule over many nations. But none will rule over you.

⁷ There might be a poor man among you. He might be in one of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you. Do not be selfish or greedy toward your poor brother. ⁸ But give freely to him. Freely lend him whatever he needs. ⁹ Beware of evil thoughts. Don’t think, “The seventh year is near. It’s the year to forget what people owe.” You might be mean to your needy brother. You might not give him anything. Then he will complain to the Lord about you. And the Lord will find you guilty of sin. ¹⁰ Give freely to the poor person. Do not wish that you didn’t have to give. The Lord your God will bless your work and everything you touch. ¹¹ There will always be poor people in the land. So I command you to give freely to your brothers. Give freely to the poor and needy in your land.

Letting Slaves Go Free

¹² One of your own people might sell himself to you as a slave. It may be a Hebrew man or woman. That person will serve you for six years. The seventh year you must let him go free. ¹³ And when you let him go, don’t send him away without anything. ¹⁴ Give him some of your sheep, your grain and your wine. Give to him as the Lord has given to you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. And the Lord your God saved you. That is why I am commanding this to you today.

¹⁶ But your slave might say to you, “I don’t want to leave you.” He might love you and your family. He might have a good life with you. ¹⁷ If he does this, stick an awl^[a] through his ear into the door. He will be your slave for life. Also do this to a woman slave.

¹⁸ Do not think of it as a hard thing when you let your slave go free. After all, he served you six years. You paid him only half what a hired person would cost. The Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

Rules About Firstborn Animals

¹⁹ Save all the first male animals born to your herds and flocks. They are for the Lord your God. Do not work the first calf born to your oxen. And do not cut off the wool from the first lamb born to your sheep. ²⁰ Each year you and your family are to eat these animals. Eat them in the presence of the Lord your God. Eat them in the place he will choose to be worshiped. ²¹ An animal might have something wrong with it. It might be crippled or blind. It might have some other thing wrong with it. Do not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² But you may eat that animal in your own town. Both clean and unclean people may eat it. It would be like eating a gazelle or a deer. ²³ But don’t eat its blood. Pour it out on the ground like water.

The Passover

16 Celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God during the month of Abib. It was during Abib that he brought you out of Egypt at night. ² Offer a sacrifice for the Passover to the Lord your God. It should be an animal from your flock or herd. Offer it at the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped. ³ Do not eat it with bread made with yeast. But for seven days eat bread made without yeast. This is the bread of suffering because you left Egypt in a hurry. So all your life you will remember the time you left Egypt. ⁴ There must be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Offer the sacrifice on the evening of the first day. Eat all the meat before morning. Do not leave it overnight.

⁵ Do not offer the Passover sacrifice in just any town the Lord your God gives you. ⁶ Offer it in the place he will choose to be worshiped. Offer it in the evening as the sun goes down. That is when you left Egypt. ⁷ Roast the meat. Then eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. The next morning go back to your tents. ⁸ Eat bread made without yeast for six days. On the seventh day have a special meeting for the Lord your God. Do not work that day.

Feast of Weeks

⁹ Count seven weeks from the time you begin to harvest the grain. ¹⁰ Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God. Bring him an offering as a special gift to him. Give to him just as he has blessed you. ¹¹ Rejoice before the Lord your God. Rejoice at the place he will choose to be worshiped. Everybody should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your town, the strangers, orphans and widows living among you. ¹² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. And carefully obey all these laws.

Feast of Shelters

¹³ Celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days. Do it after you have gathered your harvest from the threshing floor and winepress. ¹⁴ Everybody should rejoice at your Feast: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites and strangers who live in your towns, orphans and widows in your towns. ¹⁵ Celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God for seven days. Celebrate it at the place he will choose. The Lord your God will bless all your harvest. He will bless all the work you do. And you will be completely happy.

¹⁶ All your men must come before the Lord three times a year. They must come to the place he will choose. They must come at these times: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Shelters. No man should come before the Lord without a gift. ¹⁷ Each of you must bring a gift. It should show how much the Lord your God has blessed you.

Judges for the People

¹⁸ Appoint judges and officers for your tribes. Appoint them in every town the Lord your God is giving you. And they must judge the people fairly. ¹⁹ Do not judge unfairly or take sides. Do not let people pay you to make wrong decisions. That kind of payment makes wise people seem blind. And it changes the words of good people. ²⁰ Always do what is right. Then you will live and own the land the Lord your God is giving you.

God Hates Idols

²¹ Do not set up a wooden Asherah idol next to the altar you build for the Lord your God. ²² And do not set up holy stone pillars. The Lord your God hates them.