Deuteronomy 14

1 “We are people who belong to Yahweh our God. So, when people die, do not show that you are grieving by gashing/cutting yourselves or by shaving the hair on your foreheads [like the other people-groups do].

'Sons ye [are] to Jehovah your God; ye do not cut yourselves, nor make baldness between your eyes for the dead;

2 We belong to Yahweh alone. Yahweh chose us from all the other people-groups on the earth to be his special people.

for a holy people [art] thou to Jehovah thy God, and on thee hath Jehovah fixed to be to Him for a people, a peculiar treasure, out of all the peoples who [are] on the face of the ground.

3 “Do not eat anything that [Yahweh] detests.

'Thou dost not eat any abominable thing;

4 The animals [whose meat] you are permitted to eat are cattle, sheep, goats,

'this [is] the beast which ye do eat: ox, lamb of the sheep, or kid of the goats,

5 deer, gazelles, wild goats, antelopes, and mountain sheep.

hart, and roe, and fallow deer, and wild goat, and pygarg, and wild ox, and chamois;

6 Those are animals that have split hoofs and that also (chew their cuds/regurgitate their food [from their stomachs] to chew it again).

and every beast dividing the hoof, and cleaving the cleft into two hoofs, bringing up the cud, among the beasts — it ye do eat.

7 But there are other animals that chew their cuds that you must not eat. Those are camels, rabbits, and rock badgers. They chew their cuds, but their hooves are not split. So they are not acceptable for you to eat.

'Only, this ye do not eat, of those bringing up the cud, and of those dividing the cloven hoof: the camel, and the hare, and the rabbit, for they are bringing up the cud but the hoof have not divided; unclean they [are] to you;

8 Do not eat pigs. They are unacceptable for you to eat; their hooves are split, but they do not chew cud. Do not eat the meat of those animals; do not even touch their dead bodies.

and the sow, for it is dividing the hoof, and not [bringing] up the cud, unclean it [is] to you; of their flesh ye do not eat, and against their carcase ye do not come.

9 You are permitted to eat any fish that has scales and fins.

'This ye do eat of all that [are] in the waters; all that hath fins and scales ye do eat;

10 But anything else [that lives in the water] that does not have scales and fins, you must not eat, because [if you eat them], you will become unacceptable [to Yahweh].

and anything which hath not fins and scales ye do not eat; unclean it [is] to you.

11 “You are permitted to eat the flesh of any bird that is acceptable [to Yahweh].

'Any clean bird ye do eat;

12 But eagles, vultures, black vultures,

and these [are] they of which ye do not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

13 buzzards, all kinds of kites,

and the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after its kind,

14 all kinds of crows,

and every raven after its kind;

15 ostriches, seagulls,

and the owl, and the night-hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after its kind;

16 owls, hawks, falcons,

the [little] owl, and the [great] owl, and the swan,

17 pelicans, vultures that eat dead animals, cormorants,

and the pelican, and the gier-eagle, and the cormorant,

18 storks, herons, hoopoes, and bats, you must not eat.

and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the lapwing, and the bat;

19 “All insects with wings [and which walk on the ground] are unacceptable [to Yahweh]; do not eat them.

and every teeming thing which is flying, unclean it [is] to you; they are not eaten;

20 But other insects with wings [and which hop along the ground] are acceptable to eat.

any clean fowl ye do eat.

21 “Do not eat any animal that has died naturally, [because its blood has not been drained out]. You may allow foreigners who live among you to eat those things or you may sell them to other foreigners. But you belong to Yahweh our God; [and those who belong to him are not permitted to eat the meat of animals whose blood has not been drained out]. “You must not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother’s milk.”

'Ye do not eat of any carcase; to the sojourner who [is] within thy gates thou dost give it, and he hath eaten it; or sell [it] to a stranger; for a holy people thou [art] to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

22 “Once each year you must set apart (a tithe/10 percent) of all the crops that are produced/harvested in your fields.

'Thou dost certainly tithe all the increase of thy seed which the field is bringing forth year by year;

23 Take those things to the place that Yahweh our God will choose [for you to worship him]. There eat the tithes of your grain, your wine, your [olive] oil, and the meat of the firstborn male animals of your cattle and your sheep. Do this in order that you may learn to always revere Yahweh, [the one who has blessed you by giving you these things].

and thou hast eaten before Jehovah thy God, in the place where He doth choose to cause His name to tabernacle, the tithe of thy corn, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd, and of thy flock, so that thou dost learn to fear Jehovah thy God all the days.

24 If the place that Yahweh has chosen [for you to worship him] is very far from your home, with the result that you are not able to take there the tithes [of your crops] with which Yahweh has blessed you, do this:

'And when the way is too much for thee, that thou art not able to carry it — when the place is too far off from thee which Jehovah thy God doth choose to put His name there, when Jehovah thy God doth bless thee; —

25 Sell [IDM] the tithes of your crops, wrap the money carefully [in a cloth], and take it with you to the place of worship that Yahweh has chosen.

then thou hast given [it] in money, and hast bound up the money in thy hand, and gone unto the place on which Jehovah thy God doth fix;

26 There, [with that money], you may buy whatever you want to—beef or lamb or wine or fermented drinks. And there, in the presence of Yahweh, you and your families should eat [and drink] those things and be happy.

and thou hast given the money for any thing which thy soul desireth, for oxen, and for sheep, and for wine, and for strong drink, and for any thing which thy soul asketh, and thou hast eaten there before Jehovah thy God, and thou hast rejoiced, thou and thy house.

27 But be sure to not neglect/forget [to help] the descendants of Levi who live in your towns, because they will not own any land.

As to the Levite who [is] within thy gates, thou dost not forsake him, for he hath no portion and inheritance with thee.

28 “At the end of every three years, bring a tithe of all your crops that have been produced/harvested in that year and store it in your towns.

'At the end of three years thou dost bring out all the tithe of thine increase in that year, and hast placed [it] within thy gates;

29 That food is for the descendants of Levi, because they do not have their own land, and for foreigners [who live among you], and for orphans and widows who live in your towns. They are permitted to come [to where the food is stored] and take what they need. Do that in order that Yahweh our God will bless you in everything that you do.”

and come in hath the Levite (for he hath no part and inheritance with thee), and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who [are] within thy gates, and they have eaten, and been satisfied, so that Jehovah thy God doth bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou dost.