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DEUTERONOMY:
CHAPTER 14-17
DEUTERONOMY:
CHAPTER 14
Clean and
Unclean Animals
1 "You are the sons of the LORD
your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the
sake of the dead.
2 "For you are a holy people to the LORD
your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a
people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the
face of the earth.
3 "You shall not eat any detestable thing.
4 "These are the animals which you may eat: the
ox, the sheep, the goat,
5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild
goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.
6 "Any animal that divides the hoof and has the
hoof split in two and chews the cud, among the animals, that
you may eat.
7 "Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these
among those which chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof
in two: the camel and the rabbit and the shaphan, for though they chew
the cud, they do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.
8 "The pig, because it divides the hoof but does
not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any
of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.
9 "These you may eat of all that are in
water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat,
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 which you shall not
eat: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard,
13 and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite
in their kinds,
14 and every raven in its kind,
15 and the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, and
the hawk in their kinds,
16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
17 the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,
18 the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and
the hoopoe and the bat.
19 "And all the teeming life with wings are unclean
to you; they shall not be eaten.
20 "You may eat any clean bird.
21 "You shall not eat anything which dies
of itself. You may give it to the alien who is in your town,
so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are
a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall
not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
22 "You shall surely tithe all the produce
from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year.
23 "You shall eat in the presence of the LORD
your God, at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe
of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd
and your flock, so that you may learn to fear the LORD
your God always.
24 "If the distance is so great for you that
you are not able to bring the tithe, since the place where the
LORD your God chooses to set His name is too
far away from you when the LORD your God blesses
you,
25 then you shall exchange it for money,
and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the LORD
your God chooses.
26 "You may spend the money for whatever your
heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever
your heart desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of the LORD
your God and rejoice, you and your household.
27 "Also you shall not neglect the Levite who
is in your town, for he has no portion or inheritance among you.
28 "At the end of every third year you
shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall
deposit it in your town.
29 "The Levite, because he has no portion or
inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are
in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the
LORD your God may bless you in all the work of
your hand which you do.
DEUTERONOMY:
CHAPTER 15
The Sabbatic
Year
1 "At the end of every seven years you
shall grant a remission of debts.
2 "This is the manner of remission: every creditor
shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact
it of his neighbor and his brother, because the LORD'S
remission has been proclaimed.
3 "From a foreigner you may exact it,
but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother.
4 "However, there will be no poor among you,
since the LORD will surely bless you in the land
which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance
to possess,
5 if only you listen obediently to the voice
of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all
this commandment which I am commanding you today.
6 "For the LORD your God
will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations,
but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they
will not rule over you.
7 "If there is a poor man with you, one
of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD
your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your
hand from your poor brother;
8 but you shall freely open your hand to him,
and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever
he lacks.
9 "Beware that there is no base thought in your
heart, saying, 'The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,' and
your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing;
then he may cry to the LORD against you, and
it will be a sin in you.
10 "You shall generously give to him, and your
heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing
the LORD your God will bless you in all your
work and in all your undertakings.
11 "For the poor will never cease to be
in the land; therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall freely open
your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.'
12 "If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman,
is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh
year you shall set him free.
13 "When you set him free, you shall not send
him away empty-handed.
14 "You shall furnish him liberally from your
flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall
give to him as the LORD your God has blessed
you.
15 "You shall remember that you were a slave
in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed
you; therefore I command you this today.
16 "It shall come about if he says to you, 'I
will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your household,
since he fares well with you;
17 then you shall take an awl and pierce it through
his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you
shall do likewise to your maidservant.
18 "It shall not seem hard to you when
you set him free, for he has given you six years with double
the service of a hired man; so the LORD your
God will bless you in whatever you do.
19 "You shall consecrate to the LORD
your God all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your
flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear
the firstborn of your flock.
20 "You and your household shall eat it every
year before the LORD your God in the place which
the LORD chooses.
21 "But if it has any defect, such as
lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice
it to the LORD your God.
22 "You shall eat it within your gates; the unclean
and the clean alike may eat it, as a gazelle or a deer.
23 "Only you shall not eat its blood; you are
to pour it out on the ground like water.
DEUTERONOMY:
CHAPTER 16
The Feasts
of Passover, of Weeks, and of Booths
1 "Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the
Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month
of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of
Egypt by night.
2 "You shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD
your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD
chooses to establish His name.
3 "You shall not eat leavened bread with it;
seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction
(for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember
all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
4 "For seven days no leaven shall be seen with
you in all your territory, and none of the flesh which you sacrifice
on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning.
5 "You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover
in any of your towns which the LORD your God
is giving you;
6 but at the place where the LORD
your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover
in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt.
7 "You shall cook and eat it in the place
which the LORD your God chooses. In the morning
you are to return to your tents.
8 "Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and
on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD
your God; you shall do no work on it.
9 "You shall count seven weeks for yourself;
you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put
the sickle to the standing grain.
10 "Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks
to the LORD your God with a tribute of a freewill
offering of your hand, which you shall give just as the LORD
your God blesses you;
11 and you shall rejoice before the LORD
your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female
servants and the Levite who is in your town, and the stranger and the
orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the LORD
your God chooses to establish His name.
12 "You shall remember that you were a slave
in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
13 "You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths
seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and
your wine vat;
14 and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and
your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the
Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your
towns.
15 "Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to
the LORD your God in the place which the LORD
chooses, because the LORD your God will bless
you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you
will be altogether joyful.
16 "Three times in a year all your males
shall appear before the LORD your God in the
place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the
Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear
before the LORD empty-handed.
17 "Every man shall give as he is able, according
to the blessing of the LORD your God which He
has given you.
18 "You shall appoint for yourself judges
and officers in all your towns which the LORD
your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge
the people with righteous judgment.
19 "You shall not distort justice; you shall
not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the
eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.
20 "Justice, and only justice, you shall
pursue, that you may live and possess the land which the LORD
your God is giving you.
21 "You shall not plant for yourself an
Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the LORD
your God, which you shall make for yourself.
22 "You shall not set up for yourself a sacred
pillar which the LORD your God hates.
DEUTERONOMY:
CHAPTER 17
Administration
of Justice
1 "You shall not sacrifice to the LORD
your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect,
for that is a detestable thing to the LORD your
God.
2 "If there is found in your midst, in
any of your towns, which the LORD your God is
giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the
LORD your God, by transgressing His covenant,
3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped
them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have
not commanded,
4 and if it is told you and you have heard of
it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the
thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,
5 then you shall bring out that man or that woman
who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or
the woman, and you shall stone them to death.
6 "On the evidence of two witnesses or three
witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put
to death on the evidence of one witness.
7 "The hand of the witnesses shall be first against
him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So
you shall purge the evil from your midst.
8 "If any case is too difficult for you
to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind
of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being
cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the
place which the LORD your God chooses.
9 "So you shall come to the Levitical priest
or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire
of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case.
10 "You shall do according to the terms of the
verdict which they declare to you from that place which the LORD
chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they
teach you.
11 "According to the terms of the law which they
teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall
do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you,
to the right or the left.
12 "The man who acts presumptuously by not listening
to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD
your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge
the evil from Israel.
13 "Then all the people will hear and be afraid,
and will not act presumptuously again.
14 "When you enter the land which the
LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and
live in it, and you say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations
who are around me,'
15 you shall surely set a king over you whom
the LORD your God chooses, one from among
your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put
a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.
16 "Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for
himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply
horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You
shall never again return that way.'
17 "He shall not multiply wives for himself,
or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver
and gold for himself.
18 "Now it shall come about when he sits
on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this
law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.
19 "It shall be with him and he shall read it
all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD
his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these
statutes,
20 that his heart may not be lifted up above
his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment,
to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long
in his kingdom in the midst of Israel. |
