1 Yahweh holds you as his people, so you will not cut yourselves or cut the hair on your forehead for the dead.
2 You are a people, holy and consecrated to Yahweh, your God. Yahweh has chosen you from among all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his very own people.
Animals “clean” and “unclean”
3 Do not eat anything that is unclean.
4 These are the animals that you may eat: ox, sheep, goat,
5 deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep.
6 You may eat any animal that chews the cud and has a split hoof.
7 But of those that chew cud or have a split hoof, you may not eat the following: camel, hare, and rock badger, because they do chew the cud but do not have a divided hoof—these are unclean for you. Neither shall you eat the meat
8 of the pig because although it has a split hoof, it does not chew the cud. Regard it as unclean: do not eat their meat or touch their carcass.
9 Of all the animals that live in the water, you may eat the following: all that has fins and scales,
10 but not those that do not have fins and scales. Consider them as unclean.
11 You may eat all clean birds.
12 But do not eat the following: eagle, vulture, osprey,
13 buzzard, kite, the different kinds of falcons,
14 all kinds of ravens,—
15 ostrich, nighthawk, sea gull, and all the different kinds of hawk,
16 eagle, owl and ibis, swan,
17 pelican, purple gallinule, cor morant,
18 stork, the different kinds of heron, hoopoe, and bat.
19 Consider as unclean all winged insects. Do not eat them.
20 But you may eat all clean birds.
21 Do not eat any animal that you find dead. You may give it to the foreigner who lives in your city, or sell it to the stranger, for you are a people consecrated to Yahweh, your God. Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
Tithes
22 Every year separate the tenth part from the yield of what you have sown in your fields.
23 In the presence of Yahweh, in the place he has chosen as the dwelling place for his Name, you shall eat the tithe of your wheat, your oil and your wine, and the firstlings of your herd and flock that you may learn to honor Yah weh, your God, all the days of your life.
24 The journey may be too long for you to bring those tithes to the place Yahweh has chosen as a dwelling place for his Name. In that case, when Yahweh your God, blesses you, ex change them all for money.
25 Take the money in your hand and go to the place chosen by Yahweh.
26 There you shall buy whatever you like—oxen or sheep, or wine or strong drink—anything you like. And there you shall eat in the presence of Yahweh, and shall rejoice—you and your household.
27 And do not forget the Levite who dwells in your cities, since he has nothing of his own and no inheritance as you have.
28 Every three years, separate the tithes of all the year’s harvest but store them in the city.
29 Then the Levite among you who has no inheritance of his own, and the foreigner, the orphan and the widow who live in your cities may come and eat, and be satisfied. So Yahweh will bless all the works of your hands, all that you undertake.
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Comments Deuteronomy, Chapter 14
• 14.3 Another list of “clean” and “un clean” animals (see Lev 11).
• 22. In 14:22-29, we read about the tithes, that is the tenth part of the crops to be offered to God. Deuteronomy makes this offering the foundation of a believer’s faith. Else where in the Bible, the author will emphasize that “the just one has compassion, he gives and lends; and in the end, he owns the land” while “the unjust one borrows and does not repay and in the end, he is thrown out of the land” (Ps 37). The person who knows how to give does not squander: he is content with what he has and lacks nothing, while the one who refuses to give never has enough and ne ver feels happy (Pro 11:24). See also 2 Cor 9:6.
The same spirit inspires chapter 15 concerning the sabbatical year (see Lev 25:1).