Deuteronomy 14; Deuteronomy 15; Deuteronomy 16

Deuteronomy 14

1 You are the LORD's children. Don't cut yourselves and don't shave your foreheads for the dead,

2 because you are a people holy to the LORD your God. You are the ones whom the LORD selected to be his own, to be a treasured people out of all other people on earth.

3 Don't eat any detestable thing.

4 Here's a list of animals you are allowed to eat: ox, sheep, goat,

5 deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep.

6 You are also allowed to eat any animal with a divided hoof—the hoof being divided into two parts—and that rechews food among the various kinds of animals.

7 However, here's a list of animals that either rechew food or have hooves divided in two parts that you are not allowed to eat: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger—because these rechew food but don't have divided hoofs, they are off-limits for you;

8 and the pig—because it has a divided hoof but doesn't rechew food, it's off-limits for you. You may not eat these animals' meat, and you must not touch their carcasses.

9 Here's a list of the water animals you are allowed to eat: you can eat anything that has fins and scales.

10 But you aren't allowed to eat anything that lacks scales or fins. These are off-limits for you.

11 You are allowed to eat any clean bird.

12 Here's a list of those you are not allowed to eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,

13 the red kite, the black kite, and any kind of bird of prey,

14 any kind of raven,

15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the seagull, any kind of hawk,

16 the small owl and the large owl, the water hen,

17 the desert owl, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,

18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.

19 Also, all winged insects are off-limits for you. They are not to be eaten.

20 Any clean winged creature can be eaten, however.

21 You must not eat any decayed animal flesh because you are a people holy to the LORD your God. You can give decayed animal flesh to the immigrants who live in your cities, and they can eat it; or you can sell it to foreigners. Don't cook a lamb in its own mother's milk.

22 You must reserve a tenth part of whatever your fields produce each year.

23 Eat the tenth part of your grain, wine, oil, oldest offspring of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God in the location he selects for his name to reside so that you learn to fear the LORD your God at all times.

24 But if the trip is too long, because the location the LORD your God has selected to put his name is far away from where you live so that you can't transport the tenth part—because the LORD your God will certainly bless you—

25 then you can convert it to money. Take the money with you and go to the location the LORD your God selects.

26 Then you can use the money for anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or whatever else you might like. Then you should feast there and celebrate in the presence of the LORD your God, along with your entire household.

27 Only make sure not to neglect the Levites who are living in your cities because they don't have a designated inheritance like you do.

28 Every third year you must bring the tenth part of your produce from that year and leave it at your city gates.

29 Then the Levites, who have no designated inheritance like you do, along with the immigrants, orphans, and widows who live in your cities, will come and feast until they are full. Do this so that the LORD your God might bless you in everything you do.

Deuteronomy 15

1 Every seventh year you must cancel all debts.

2 This is how the cancellation is to be handled: Creditors will forgive the loans of their fellow Israelites. They won't demand repayment from their neighbors or their relatives because the LORD's year of debt cancellation has been announced.

3 You are allowed to demand payment from foreigners, but whatever is owed you from your fellow Israelites you must forgive.

4 Of course there won't be any poor persons among you because the LORD will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance,

5 but only if you carefully obey the LORD your God's voice, by carefully doing every bit of this commandment that I'm giving you right now.

6 Once the LORD your God has blessed you, exactly as he said he would, you will end up lending to many different peoples but won't need to borrow a thing. You will dominate many different peoples, but they won't dominate you.

7 Now if there are some poor persons among you, say one of your fellow Israelites in one of your cities in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, don't be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward your poor fellow Israelites.

8 To the contrary! Open your hand wide to them. You must generously lend them whatever they need.

9 But watch yourself! Make sure no wicked thought crosses your mind, such as, The seventh year is coming—the year of debt cancellation—so that you resent your poor fellow Israelites and don't give them anything. If you do that, they will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

10 No, give generously to needy persons. Don't resent giving to them because it is this very thing that will lead to the LORD your God's blessing you in all you do and work at.

11 Poor persons will never disappear from the earth. That's why I'm giving you this command: you must open your hand generously to your fellow Israelites, to the needy among you, and to the poor who live with you in your land.

12 If any of your fellow Hebrews, male or female, sell themselves into your service, they can work for you for six years, but in the seventh year you must set them free from your service.

13 Furthermore, when you set them free from your service, you must not let them go empty-handed.

14 Instead, provide for them fully from your flock, food, and wine. You must give to them from that with which the LORD your God has blessed you.

15 Remember how each of you were slaves in Egypt and how the LORD your God saved you. That's why I am commanding you to do this right now. (

16 Now if your male servant says to you: "I don't want to leave your service" because he loves you and your family and because life is good for him in your service,

17 then you may take a needle and pierce his ear with it into the doorframe. From that point on, he will be your permanent servant. Do the same thing for female servants.)

18 Don't consider it a hardship to set these servants free from your service, because they worked for you for six years—at a value double that of a paid worker. The LORD your God will bless you in everything that you do.

19 You must devote every oldest male animal from your herds or flocks to the LORD your God. Don't plow with your oldest male ox and don't shear your oldest male sheep.

20 Year after year, you and your family are allowed to eat these animals in the presence of the LORD your God, in the location the LORD selects.

21 But if there is any defect in it, lameness, blindness, any flaw whatsoever, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

22 You are allowed to eat those in your own cities, whether you are polluted or purified, just as you would eat gazelle or deer.

23 Even so, don't consume any blood. Pour it out on the ground, like water.

Deuteronomy 16

1 Wait for the month of Abib, at which time you must perform the Passover for the LORD your God, because the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt at nighttime during the month of Abib.

2 Offer a Passover sacrifice from the flock or herd to the LORD your God at the location the LORD selects for his name to reside.

3 You must not eat anything containing yeast along with it. Instead, for seven days you must eat unleavened bread, bread symbolizing misery, along with it because you fled Egypt in a great hurry. Do this so you remember the day you fled Egypt for as long as you live.

4 No dough with yeast should appear in any of your territory for seven days. Furthermore, none of the meat that you sacrificed on the first night should remain until morning.

5 You are not permitted to offer the Passover sacrifice in any of the cities that the LORD your God is giving you.

6 Instead, you must offer the Passover sacrifice at the location the LORD your God selects for his name to reside, at evening time, when the sun sets, which was the time you fled Egypt.

7 Cook it and eat it in the location that the LORD your God selects. The next morning you can return to your tents.

8 For six days you will eat unleavened bread. The seventh day will be a celebration for the LORD your God. Don't do any work.

9 Count out seven weeks, starting the count from the beginning of the grain harvest.

10 At that point, perform the Festival of Weeks for the LORD your God. Offer a spontaneous gift in precise measure with the blessing the LORD your God gives you.

11 Then celebrate in the presence of the LORD your God—you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites who live in your cities, the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows who are among you—in the location the LORD your God selects for his name to reside.

12 Remember how each of you was a slave in Egypt, so follow these regulations most carefully.

13 Once you have collected the food and drink you need, perform the Festival of Booths for seven days.

14 Celebrate your festival: you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites, the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows who live in your cities.

15 Seven days you must perform the festival for the LORD your God in the location the LORD selects because the LORD your God will bless you in all you do and in all your work. You will be overjoyed.

16 Three times a year every male among you must appear before the presence of the LORD your God in the location he will select: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. They must not appear before the LORD's presence empty-handed.

17 Each one should have his gift in hand, in precise measure with the blessing the LORD your God gives you.

18 Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every city that the LORD your God gives you. They must judge the people fairly.

19 Don't delay justice; don't show favoritism. Don't take bribes because bribery blinds the vision of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

20 Righteousness! Pursue righteousness so that you live long and take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

21 Don't plant any tree to serve as a sacred pole next to the altar you make for the LORD your God.

22 Don't set up any sacred stone either, because the LORD your God hates such things.