Deuteronomy 14
The Israelites are instructed to be holy and separate from other nations, and to avoid certain practices such as cutting themselves or making themselves bald for the dead. They are given dietary laws, including which animals are clean and may be eaten, such as those with divided hooves and that chew the cud, and which are unclean and may not be eaten. They are also instructed on which birds and fish are clean and may be eaten. Additionally, they are told not to eat animals that have died of themselves, but to give them to sojourners or sell them. The Israelites are also instructed to tithe their crops and to eat them in the presence of the Lord, and to take care of the Levites, sojourners, orphans, and widows within their gates.
1"Be sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make yourselves bald, because of the dead2For you are a holy people, for the Lord your God. And he chose you, so that you may be a people particularly his, out of all the nations on earth3You shall not eat the things that are unclean4These are the animals which you ought to eat: the ox, and the sheep, and the goat5the stag and the roe deer, the gazelle, the wild goat, the addax, the antelope, the giraffe6Every beast which has a hoof divided into two parts and which also chews the cud, you shall eat7But those which chew over again, but do not have a divided hoof, you must not eat, such as the camel, the hare, and the hyrax. Since these chew the cud, but do not have a divided the hoof, they shall be unclean to you8The pig also, since it has a divided hoof, but does not chew over again, shall be unclean. Their flesh shall not be eaten, and you shall not touch their carcasses9These you shall eat out of all that dwells in the waters: whatever has fins and scales, you shall eat10Whatever is without fins and scales, you shall not eat, for these are unclean11All the clean birds, you shall eat12You shall not eat those that are unclean: such as the eagle, and the griffin, and the osprey13the crane, and the vulture, and the kite, according to their kind14and any kind of raven15and the ostrich, and the owl, and the gull, and the hawk, according to their kind16the heron, and the swan, and the ibis17and the sea bird, the marsh hen, and the night raven18the pelican and the plover, each in their kind, likewise the crested hoopoe and the bat19And anything which crawls and also has little wings shall be unclean, and shall not be eaten20All that is clean, you shall eat21But whatever has died of itself, you shall not eat from it. Give it to the sojourner, who is within your gates, so that he may eat, or sell it to him. For you are the holy people of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in the milk of his mother22Each year, you shall separate the tithes out of all your crops which spring forth from the earth23And you shall eat these in the sight of the Lord your God, in the place which he will choose, so that his name may be invoked there: the tenth part of your grain and wine and oil, and the firstborn from the herds and your sheep. So may you learn to fear the Lord your God at all times24But when the way and the place which the Lord your God will have chosen is further away, and he will have blessed you, so that you are not able to carry all these things to it25you shall sell them all, so as to turn them into money, and you shall carry it in your hand, and you shall set out for the place which the Lord will choose26And you shall buy with the same money whatever pleases you, either from the herds or from the sheep, and also wine and liquor, and all that your soul desires. And you shall eat in the sight of the Lord your God, and you shall feast: you and your household27As for the Levite, who is within your gates, take care that you do not abandon him, for he has no other portion within your possession28In the third year, you shall separate another tenth part of all the things which spring forth for you at that time, and you shall store it within your gates29And the Levite, who has no other portion or possession with you, and the sojourner as well as the orphan and the widow who are within your gates, shall approach and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands which you shall do.
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