OET-RV DEU Chapter 14

14 You’re all children of your god Yahweh so don’t cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the sake of the dead,[ref] 2 because you’re a nation that’s set apart for your god Yahweh, and he’s chosen you out of all the other peoples in the world to be his own people.[ref]

3 Don’t eat anything that Yahweh detests. 4 These are the animals that you all can eat: cattle, sheep, goats, 5 all kinds of deer, gazelles, wild goats, and mountain sheep, 6 i.e., you can eat any of the animals that have split hooves and that also chew the cud. 7 But there are other animals that chew the cud that you mustn’t eat: camels, rabbits and hares, and rock badgers. They chew the cud, but don’t have split hooves so they are unacceptable for you to eat. 8 Don’t eat pigs—they’re unacceptable for you to eat. They have split hooves, but they don’t chew the cud. Don’t eat the meat of those animals and don’t even touch their dead bodies.

9 You all can eat anything that lives in water that has both fins and scales, 10 but anything in the water that doesn’t have both is unacceptable for you to eat.

11 You all can eat any clean bird, 12 but not these: eagles, vultures, ospreys, 13 buzzards, kites, falcons, 14 any kind of ravens or crows, 15 ostriches, owls, seagulls, any kind of hawk, 16 any kinds of owls, 17 pelicans, carrion vultures, cormorants, 18 storks, any kind of heron, hoopoes, or bats. 19 You mustn’t eat any insect with wings and which swarm—they’re unacceptable to Yahweh for you to eat, 20 but other insects with wings are acceptable to eat.

21 Don’t eat any creature that’s died naturally. You may allow foreigners who live among you to eat those things. You may also sell them to other foreigners. But you are a people group that belongs to your god Yahweh.

You mustn’t cook a young sheep or goat in its mother’s milk.[ref]

22 Make sure you set aside a tenth of all the crops that you harvest from your fields.[ref] 23 You must eat it in the presence of your god Yahweh, in the place that he’ll choose and attach his name to. That’s where you must eat the tenth of your grain, wine, olive oil, and the firstborn male animals from your herd and your flock, so that you’ll learn to always honour your god Yahweh. 24 When he blesses you with produce, if the place he chooses to attach his name to is too far for you to be able to carry it to, 25 then you can give the equivalent in cash, and carefully take the cash with you all the way to the place that he chooses. 26 When you get there, use the money to purchase any kinds of meat or drink that you want, and consume it there in front of your god Yahweh, and celebrate along with your household.

27 Be sure not to neglect any Levites that live in your town, because they weren’t given ancestral land for agriculture like you were. 28 At the end of every third year, bring the tenth of all your produce for that year and store it in your town 29 for the Levites (because they didn’t get land), and for any foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. They can come and get what they need so that your god Yahweh can bless you in everything that you do.