Deuteronomy 14

Clean and Unclean Animals

1 You all are God’s kids. So do not be out here cutting yourselves or shaving your heads when someone dies like them other folks do.

2 God picked you outta everybody to be His special people. You set apart, holy. He chose you for Himself outta all the nations.

Clean and Unclean Food

3 Do not eat nothing that is foul or against God’s rules.

4 Here is what you can eat: ox, sheep, goat,

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

6 You can eat any animal that got split hooves and chews the cud, both, not just one.

7 But animals like the camel, rabbit, and rock badger, they chew the cud but do not have split hooves. Do not eat them, they are unclean.

8 And pigs, They got split hooves, but they do not chew the cud. Unclean too. Do not eat their meat or touch their dead bodies.

Seafood Rules

9 You can eat whatever is in the water if it got fins and scales.

10 But if it does not have fins and scales, Do not eat it. That joint unclean.

Birds You Cannot Eat

11 You can eat any clean bird.

12 But do not eat the eagle.

13 Do not eat the vulture.

14 Do not eat the red kite or any kind of falcon.

15 Do not eat ravens or any bird like them.

16 Do not eat the ostrich, the night hawk, the sea gull, or hawks of any kind.

17 Do not eat little owls, great owls, or white owls.

18 Do not eat pelicans, carrion vultures, cormorants,

19 Storks, herons of all kinds, hoopoes, or bats.

Bugs and Other Creatures

20 You can eat any clean flying bird.

21 Do not eat any animal that dies on its own. You can give it to outsiders or foreigners living among you all, but do not eat it yourselves, you are holy to God. And do not be boiling a baby goat in its mama’s milk. That is wild disrespectful.

Tithes and Giving Back

22 Every year, make sure you set aside one-tenth of your crops, whatever you harvest that year.

23 Take that tithe to the place God picks out, and eat it in His presence. Bring your grain, wine, oil, and the firstborn of your animals, so you learn to respect and follow Him always.

24 If the place God chose is too far, and you cannot carry all that stuff,

25 Then sell it, take the money, and roll out to God’s spot with cash in hand.

26 Use the money to buy whatever your heart wants, cows, sheep, wine, strong drink, then throw a celebration with your people in God’s presence.

27 Do not forget about the Levites in your hood. They do not have land or inheritance like you, so look out for them.

28 Every third year, bring all your tithes and stack them up in your town.

29 That way the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows in your area can eat good and be satisfied. If you do this, God is going to bless everything you do.