Deuteronomy 14-16

American Standard Version

14 Ye are the children of Jehovah your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. ² For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, and Jehovah hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, ^[a]above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.

³ Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. ⁴ These are the beasts which ye may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, ⁵ the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the antelope, and the chamois. ⁶ And every beast that parteth the hoof, and hath the hoof cloven in two, and ^[b]cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that may ye eat. ⁷ Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the coney; because they chew the cud but part not the hoof, they are unclean unto you. ⁸ And the swine, because he parteth the hoof but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto you: of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcasses ye shall not touch.

⁹ These ye may eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales may ye eat; ¹⁰ and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye shall not eat; it is unclean unto you.

¹¹ Of all clean birds ye may eat. ¹² But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the gier-eagle, and the ospray, ¹³ and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind, ¹⁴ and every raven after its kind, ¹⁵ and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kind, ¹⁶ the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl, ¹⁷ and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant, ¹⁸ and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat. ¹⁹ And all winged creeping things are unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten. ²⁰ Of all clean birds ye may eat.

²¹ Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself: thou mayest give it unto the sojourner that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner: for thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

²² Thou shalt surely tithe all the increase of thy seed, that which cometh forth from the field year by year. ²³ And thou shalt eat before Jehovah thy God, in the place which he shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of thy grain, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd and of thy flock; that thou mayest learn to fear Jehovah thy God always. ²⁴ And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, because the place is too far from thee, which Jehovah thy God shall choose, to set his name there, when Jehovah thy God shall bless thee; ²⁵ then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thy hand, and shalt go unto the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose: ²⁶ and thou shalt bestow the money for whatsoever thy soul desireth, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul asketh of thee; and thou shalt eat there before Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy household. ²⁷ And the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee.

²⁸ At the end of every three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase in the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: ²⁹ and the Levite, because he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou doest.

15 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. ² And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he hath lent unto his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother; because Jehovah’s release hath been proclaimed. ³ Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it: but whatsoever of thine is with thy brother thy hand shall ^[c]release. ⁴ Howbeit there shall be no poor with thee (for Jehovah will surely bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it), ⁵ if only thou diligently hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command thee this day. ⁶ For Jehovah thy God will bless thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over thee.

⁷ If there be with thee a poor man, one of thy brethren, within any of thy gates in thy land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother; ⁸ but thou shalt surely open thy hand unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth. ⁹ Beware that there be not a base thought in thy heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou give him nought; and he cry unto Jehovah against thee, and it be sin unto thee. ¹⁰ Thou shalt surely give him, and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him; because that for this thing Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy work, and in all that thou puttest thy hand unto. ¹¹ For the poor will never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt surely open thy hand unto thy brother, to thy needy, and to thy poor, in thy land.

¹² If thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. ¹³ And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty: ¹⁴ thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy winepress; as Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. ¹⁵ And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day. ¹⁶ And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go out from thee; because he loveth thee and thy house, because he is well with thee; ¹⁷ then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy ^[d]servant for ever. And also unto thy ^[e]maid-servant thou shalt do likewise. ¹⁸ It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou lettest him go free from thee; for to the double of the hire of a hireling hath he served thee six years: and Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all that thou doest.

¹⁹ All the firstling males that are born of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto Jehovah thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy herd, nor shear the firstling of thy flock. ²⁰ Thou shalt eat it before Jehovah thy God year by year in the place which Jehovah shall choose, thou and thy household. ²¹ And if it have any blemish, as if it be lame or blind, any ill blemish whatsoever, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto Jehovah thy God. ²² Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle, and as the hart. ²³ Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it out upon the ground as water.

16 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto Jehovah thy God; for in the month of Abib Jehovah thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. ² And thou shalt sacrifice the passover unto Jehovah thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Jehovah shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. ³ Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. ⁴ And there shall be no leaven seen with thee in all thy borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh, which thou sacrificest the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. ⁵ Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee; ⁶ but at the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. ⁷ And thou shalt ^[f]roast and eat it in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents. ⁸ Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Jehovah thy God; thou shalt do no work therein.

⁹ Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: from the time thou beginnest to put the sickle to the standing grain shalt thou begin to number seven weeks. ¹⁰ And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto Jehovah thy God ^[g]with a tribute of a freewill-offering of thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as Jehovah thy God blesseth thee: ¹¹ and thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in the midst of thee, in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. ¹² And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

¹³ Thou shalt keep the feast of ^[h]tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress: ¹⁴ and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. ¹⁵ Seven days shalt thou keep a feast unto Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah shall choose; because Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the work of thy hands, and thou shalt be altogether joyful. ¹⁶ Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before Jehovah thy God in the place which he shall choose: in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles; and they shall not appear before Jehovah empty: ¹⁷ every man ^[i]shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which he hath given thee.

¹⁸ Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, according to thy tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹ Thou shalt not wrest justice: thou shalt not respect persons; neither shalt thou take a bribe; for a bribe doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the ^[j]words of the righteous. ^20 [k]That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.

²¹ Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Jehovah thy God, which thou shalt make thee. ²² Neither shalt thou set thee up a ^[l]pillar; which Jehovah thy God hateth.