be his own, to be a treasured people out of all other people on earth.
Dietary laws
3Don't eat any detestable thing. 4Here's a list of animals you are allowed to eat: ox, sheep, goat, 5deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep. 6You 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. 7However, 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;
8and 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.
9Here's a list of the water animals you are allowed to eat: you can eat anything that has fins and scales. 10But you aren't allowed to eat anything that lacks scales or fins. These are off-limits for you.
11You are allowed to eat any clean bird. 12Here's a list of those you are not allowed to eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, 13the red kite, the black kite, and any kind of bird of prey, 14any kind of raven, 15the ostrich, the nighthawk, the seagull, any kind of hawk, 16the small owl and the large owl, the water hen, 17the desert owl, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, 18the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.a
19Also, all winged insects are off-limits for you. They are not to be eaten. 20Any clean winged creature can be eaten, however.
21You 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.
Tenth part
22You must reserve a tenth part of whatever your fields produce each year. 23Eat 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. 24But 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--25then you can convert it to money. Take the money with you and go to the location the LORD your God selects. 26Then 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. 27Only make sure not to neglect the Levites who are living in your cities because they don't have a designated inheritance like you do.
28Every third year you must bring the tenth part of your produce from that year and leave it at your city gates. 29Then 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.
Year of canceled debts
Deuteronomy 15Every seventh year you must cancel all debts. 2This 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. 3You are allowed to demand payment from foreigners, but whatever is owed you from your fellow Israelites you must forgive. 4Of 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, 5but 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. 6Once 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.
7Now 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. 8To the contrary! Open your hand wide to them. You must generously lend them whatever they need. 9But 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. 10No, 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. 11Poor 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.
12If 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. 13Furthermore, when you set them free from your service, you must not let them go empty-handed. 14Instead, 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. 15Remember how each of you was a slave in Egypt and how the LORD your God saved you. That's why I am commanding you to do this right now. (16Now 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, 17then 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.) 18Don'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.
19You 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. 20Year 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. 21But if there is any defect in it, lameness, blindness, any flaw whatsoever, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. 22You are allowed to eat those in your own cities, whether you are polluted or purified, just as you would eat gazelle or deer. 23Even so, don't consume any blood. Pour it out on the ground, like water.
Passover celebration
Deuteronomy 16Wait for the month of Abib,b 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. 2Offer a Passover sacrifice from the flock or herd to the LORD your God at the location the LORD selects for his name to reside. 3You must not eat anything containing yeast along with it.c 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. 4No 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. 5You are not permitted to offer the Passover sacrifice in any of the cities that the LORD your God is giving you. 6Instead, 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. 7Cook it and eat it in the location that the LORD your God selects. The next morning you can return