Beginning

Religious Practices^(A)

14 You are the children of Yahweh your Elohim. So when someone dies, don’t mourn by cutting yourselves or shaving bald spots on your head. ² You are people who are holy to Yahweh your Elohim. Out of all the people who live on earth, Yahweh has chosen you to be his own special possession.

³ Never eat anything that is disgusting to the Lord. ⁴ Here are the kinds of animals you may eat: oxen, sheep, goats, ⁵ deer, gazelles, fallow deer,^[a] wild goats, mountain goats, antelope, and mountain sheep. ⁶ You may eat all animals that have completely divided hoofs and that also chew their cud. ⁷ But some animals chew their cud, while others have completely divided hoofs. You may not eat these kinds of animals. They include camels, rabbits, and rock badgers. (Although they chew their cud, they don’t have divided hoofs. They are unclean^[b] for you.) ⁸ Also, you may not eat pigs. (Although their hoofs are divided, they don’t chew their cud.) Never eat their meat or touch their dead bodies.

⁹ Here’s what you may eat of every creature that lives in the water: You may eat any creature that has fins and scales. ¹⁰ But never eat anything that doesn’t have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.

¹¹ You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But here are the birds that you should never eat: eagles, bearded vultures, black vultures, ¹³ buzzards, all types of kites, ¹⁴ all types of crows, ¹⁵ ostriches, nighthawks, seagulls, all types of falcons, ¹⁶ little owls, great owls, barn owls, ¹⁷ pelicans, ospreys, cormorants, ¹⁸ storks, all types of herons, hoopoes, and bats.

¹⁹ Every swarming, winged insect is also unclean for you. They must never be eaten. ²⁰ However, you may eat any other kind of flying creature that is clean.

²¹ Never eat any creature that dies naturally. You may give it to the foreigners who live in your cities, and they may eat it. You may also sell it to foreigners who are visiting. But you are people who are holy to Yahweh your Elohim.

Never cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Giving God One-Tenth of Everything

²² Every year be sure to save a tenth of the crops harvested from whatever you plant in your fields. ²³ Eat the tenth of your grain, new wine, and olive oil, and eat the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats in the presence of Yahweh your Elohim in the place he will choose to put his name. Then you will learn to fear Yahweh your Elohim as long as you live.

²⁴ But the place Yahweh your Elohim will choose to put his name may be too far away. Yahweh your Elohim may bless you with so much that you can’t carry a tenth of your income that far. ²⁵ If so, exchange the tenth part of your income for silver. Take the silver with you, and go to the place Yahweh your Elohim will choose. ²⁶ Use the silver to buy whatever you want: cattle, sheep, goats, wine, liquor—whatever you choose. Then you and your family will eat and enjoy yourselves there in the presence of Yahweh your Elohim. ²⁷ Never forget to take care of the Levites who live in your cities. They have no land of their own as you have.

²⁸ At the end of every third year bring a tenth of that year’s crop, and store it in your cities. ²⁹ Foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities may come to eat all they want. The Levites may also come because they have no land of their own as you have. Then Yahweh your Elohim will bless you in whatever work you do.

The Seventh-Year Celebration

15 At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts. ² This is what you will do: If you’ve made a loan, don’t collect payment on the debt your neighbor still owes you. Don’t demand that your neighbor or relative pay you, because the time for suspending payments on debts has been proclaimed in Yahweh’s honor. ³ You may demand that a foreigner pay, but don’t collect payment on the debt another Israelite still owes you. ⁴ In any case, there shouldn’t be any poor people among you, because Yahweh your Elohim will certainly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own possession. ⁵ He will bless you only if you listen carefully to Yahweh your Elohim and faithfully obey all these commands I’m giving you today. ⁶ Yahweh your Elohim will bless you, as he promised. You will make loans to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any of them. You will rule many nations, but no nation will ever rule you.

⁷ This is what you must do whenever there are poor Israelites in one of your cities in the land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you. ⁸ Be generous to these poor people, and freely lend them as much as they need. Never be hard-hearted and tight-fisted with them.^[c]

⁹ When the seventh year—the year when payments on debts are canceled—is near, you might be stingy toward poor Israelites and give them nothing. Be careful not to think these worthless thoughts. The poor will complain to Yahweh about you, and you will be condemned for your sin. ¹⁰ Be sure to give to them without any hesitation. When you do this, Yahweh your Elohim will bless you in everything you work for and set out to do. ¹¹ There will always be poor people in the land. That’s why I command you to be generous to other Israelites who are poor and needy.

¹² Whenever Hebrew men or women are sold to you as slaves, they will be your slaves for six years. In the seventh year you must let them go free. ¹³ But when you let them go, don’t send them away empty-handed. ¹⁴ Generously give them provisions—sheep from your flocks, grain from your threshing floor,^[d] and wine from your winepress. Be as generous to them as Yahweh your Elohim has been to you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and Yahweh your Elohim freed you. That’s why I’m giving you this command today.

¹⁶ But suppose a male slave says to you, “I don’t want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is happy with you. ¹⁷ Then take an awl and pierce it through his ear lobe into a door, and he will be your slave for life. Do the same to a female slave if she doesn’t want to leave.

¹⁸ If you have to let your slave go free, it won’t be a hardship for you. It would have cost you twice as much to hire someone to do the same work for those six years. Besides, Yahweh your Elohim will bless you in everything you do.

Setting Aside Firstborn Males for God

¹⁹ You must dedicate every firstborn male from your herds and flocks to Yahweh your Elohim. Never use a firstborn ox for work, and never shear a firstborn sheep. ²⁰ Every year you and your family must eat these animals in the presence of Yahweh your Elohim in the place Yahweh will choose. ²¹ But if an animal is lame or blind or has any other serious defect—never sacrifice it to Yahweh your Elohim. ²² Eat it in your city. Clean and unclean^[e] people may eat them together as if they were eating a gazelle or a deer. ²³ But never eat the blood. Pour it on the ground like water.

Three Major Festivals

16 Honor Yahweh your Elohim by celebrating Passover in the month of Abib. In the month of Abib Yahweh your Elohim brought you out of Egypt at night. ² Slaughter an animal from your flock or herd as the Passover sacrifice to Yahweh your Elohim. Do this at the place where Yahweh will choose for his name to live. ³ Never eat leavened bread with the meat from this sacrifice. Instead, for seven days you must eat unleavened bread at this festival. (It is the bread of misery because you left Egypt in a hurry.) Eat this bread so that, as long as you live, you will remember the day you left Egypt. ⁴ There should be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Never leave until morning any of the meat you slaughter on the evening of the first day.

⁵ You’re not allowed to slaughter the animals for Passover in any of the cities Yahweh your Elohim is giving you. ⁶ Instead, slaughter your animals for Passover in the place where Yahweh your Elohim will choose for his name to live. Do this in the evening as the sun goes down. This is the same time you did it when you left Egypt. ⁷ Cook the meat, and eat it at the place Yahweh your Elohim will choose. In the morning you may go back to your tents. ⁸ For six days eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day hold a religious assembly dedicated to Yahweh your Elohim. Don’t do any work that day.

⁹ Count seven weeks from the time you start harvesting grain. ¹⁰ Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to Yahweh your Elohim. Bring a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings Yahweh your Elohim has given you. ¹¹ Enjoy yourselves in the presence of Yahweh your Elohim along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites who live in your cities, the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live among you. Enjoy yourselves at the place Yahweh your Elohim will choose for his name to live. ¹² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and obey these laws carefully.

¹³ After you have gathered the grain from your threshing floor^[f] and made your wine, celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days. ¹⁴ Enjoy yourselves at the festival along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities. ¹⁵ For seven days you will celebrate this festival dedicated to Yahweh your Elohim in the place Yahweh will choose. You will enjoy yourselves, because Yahweh your Elohim will bless all your harvest and all your work.

¹⁶ Three times a year all your men must come into the presence of Yahweh your Elohim at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. But no one may come into the presence of Yahweh without an offering. ¹⁷ Each man must bring a gift in proportion to the blessings Yahweh your Elohim has given him.

Administering Justice

¹⁸ Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every city that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you. They are to judge the people fairly. ¹⁹ Never pervert justice. Instead, be impartial. Never take a bribe, because bribes blind wise people and deny justice to those who are in the right. ²⁰ Strive for nothing but justice so that you will live and take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

²¹ When you build the altar for Yahweh your Elohim, never plant beside it any tree dedicated to the goddess Asherah. ²² Never set up a sacred stone. These are things Yahweh your Elohim hates.