A Holy People, Set Apart by the Father
14 1 You are the children of your Father. You shall not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead. 1 1 v1 Israel is addressed directly as our Father's own children — the family bond on which the whole law rests. 2 For you are a holy people belonging to your Father, and your Father has chosen you to be a people who are his treasured possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
3 You shall not eat anything detestable. 4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 You may eat any animal that has a completely divided hoof and that chews the cud. 7 Yet of those that chew the cud or have the divided hoof, these you shall not eat: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger. They chew the cud but do not have a divided hoof; they are unclean for you. 8 And the pig, because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Do not eat their meat or touch their carcasses.
9 Of all that live in the water, you may eat anything that has fins and scales. 10 But anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
11 You may eat any clean bird. 12 But these are the ones you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, 13 the kite, the falcon, the buzzard of any kind, 14 every raven of any kind, 15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the seagull, the hawk of any kind, 16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, 17 the desert owl, the scavenger bird, the cormorant, 18 the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. 19 All winged insects are unclean for you; do not eat them. 20 But any clean winged creature you may eat.
21 Do not eat anything that has died on its own. You may give it to the stranger living in your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people belonging to your Father. Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
Bringing Your Tithe Before the Father
22 Be sure to tithe all the crops your fields produce each year. 23 And you shall eat before your Father, in the place that he will choose to make his name dwell, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to revere your Father always. 24 But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe—because the place your Father will choose to establish his name is too far from you, when your Father has blessed you— 25 then exchange it for money, take it with you, and go to the place your Father will choose. 26 And spend the money on whatever your heart desires—cattle, sheep, wine, or strong drink, whatever your heart craves—and eat there before your Father and rejoice, you and your household. 27 And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.
28 At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year and store it within your towns. 29 Then the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow in your towns shall come and eat and be satisfied, so that your Father may bless you in all the work of your hands.