Deuteronomy 14-17

Deuteronomy 14

¹‘Sons ye are to Jehovah your God; ye do not cut yourselves, nor make baldness between your eyes for the dead;

²for a holy people art thou to Jehovah thy God, and on thee hath Jehovah fixed to be to Him for a people, a peculiar treasure, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the ground.

³‘Thou dost not eat any abominable thing;

⁴‘this is the beast which ye do eat: ox, lamb of the sheep, or kid of the goats,

⁵hart, and roe, and fallow deer, and wild goat, and pygarg, and wild ox, and chamois;

⁶and every beast dividing the hoof, and cleaving the cleft into two hoofs, bringing up the cud, among the beasts -- it ye do eat.

⁷‘Only, this ye do not eat, of those bringing up the cud, and of those dividing the cloven hoof: the camel, and the hare, and the rabbit, for they are bringing up the cud but the hoof have not divided; unclean they are to you;

⁸and the sow, for it is dividing the hoof, and not bringing up the cud, unclean it is to you; of their flesh ye do not eat, and against their carcase ye do not come.

⁹‘This ye do eat of all that are in the waters; all that hath fins and scales ye do eat;

¹⁰and anything which hath not fins and scales ye do not eat; unclean it is to you.

¹¹‘Any clean bird ye do eat;

¹²and these are they of which ye do not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

¹³and the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after its kind,

¹⁴and every raven after its kind;

¹⁵and the owl, and the night-hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after its kind;

¹⁶the little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,

¹⁷and the pelican, and the gier-eagle, and the cormorant,

¹⁸and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the lapwing, and the bat;

¹⁹and every teeming thing which is flying, unclean it is to you; they are not eaten;

²⁰any clean fowl ye do eat.

²¹‘Ye do not eat of any carcase; to the sojourner who is within thy gates thou dost give it, and he hath eaten it; or sell it to a stranger; for a holy people thou art to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

²²‘Thou dost certainly tithe all the increase of thy seed which the field is bringing forth year by year;

²³and thou hast eaten before Jehovah thy God, in the place where He doth choose to cause His name to tabernacle, the tithe of thy corn, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd, and of thy flock, so that thou dost learn to fear Jehovah thy God all the days.

²⁴‘And when the way is too much for thee, that thou art not able to carry it -- when the place is too far off from thee which Jehovah thy God doth choose to put His name there, when Jehovah thy God doth bless thee; --

²⁵then thou hast given it in money, and hast bound up the money in thy hand, and gone unto the place on which Jehovah thy God doth fix;

²⁶and thou hast given the money for any thing which thy soul desireth, for oxen, and for sheep, and for wine, and for strong drink, and for any thing which thy soul asketh, and thou hast eaten there before Jehovah thy God, and thou hast rejoiced, thou and thy house.

²⁷As to the Levite who is within thy gates, thou dost not forsake him, for he hath no portion and inheritance with thee.

²⁸‘At the end of three years thou dost bring out all the tithe of thine increase in that year, and hast placed it within thy gates;

²⁹and come in hath the Levite (for he hath no part and inheritance with thee), and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within thy gates, and they have eaten, and been satisfied, so that Jehovah thy God doth bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou dost.

Deuteronomy 15

¹‘At the end of seven years thou dost make a release,

²and this is the matter of the release: Every owner of a loan is to release his hand which he doth lift up against his neighbour, he doth not exact of his neighbour and of his brother, but hath proclaimed a release to Jehovah;

³of the stranger thou mayest exact, and that which is thine with thy brother doth thy hand release;

⁴only when there is no needy one with thee, for Jehovah doth greatly bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee -- an inheritance to possess it.

⁵‘Only, if thou dost diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to observe to do all this command which I am commanding thee to-day,

⁶for Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee as He hath spoken to thee; and thou hast lent to many nations, and thou hast not borrowed; and thou hast ruled over many nations, and over thee they do not rule.

⁷‘When there is with thee any needy one of one of thy brethren, in one of thy cities, in thy land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee, thou dost not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy needy brother;

⁸for thou dost certainly open thy hand to him, and dost certainly lend him sufficient for his lack which he lacketh.

⁹‘Take heed to thee lest there be a word in thy heart -- worthless, saying, Near is the seventh year, the year of release; and thine eye is evil against thy needy brother, and thou dost not give to him, and he hath called concerning thee unto Jehovah, and it hath been in thee sin;

¹⁰thou dost certainly give to him, and thy heart is not sad in thy giving to him, for because of this thing doth Jehovah thy God bless thee in all thy works, and in every putting forth of thy hand;

¹¹because the needy one doth not cease out of the land, therefore I am commanding thee, saying, Thou dost certainly open thy hand to thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy one, in thy land.

¹²‘When thy brother is sold to thee, a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, and he hath served thee six years -- then in the seventh year thou dost send him away free from thee.

¹³And when thou dost send him away free from thee, thou dost not send him away empty;

¹⁴thou dost certainly encircle him out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy wine-vat; of that which Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee thou dost give to him,

¹⁵and thou hast remembered that a servant thou hast been in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God doth ransom thee; therefore I am commanding thee this thing to-day.

¹⁶‘And it hath been, when he saith unto thee, I go not out from thee -- because he hath loved thee, and thy house, because it is good for him with thee --

¹⁷then thou hast taken the awl, and hast put it through his ear, and through the door, and he hath been to thee a servant age-during; and also to thy handmaid thou dost do so.

¹⁸‘It is not hard in thine eyes, in thy sending him away free from thee; for the double of the hire of an hireling he hath served thee six years, and Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee in all that thou dost.

¹⁹‘Every firstling that is born in thy herd and in thy flock -- the male thou dost sanctify to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not work with the firstling of thine ox, nor shear the firstling of thy flock;

²⁰before Jehovah thy God thou dost eat it year by year, in the place which Jehovah doth choose, thou and thy house.

²¹‘And when there is in it a blemish, lame, or blind, any evil blemish, thou dost not sacrifice it to Jehovah thy God;

²²within thy gates thou dost eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, as the roe, and as the hart.

²³Only, its blood thou dost not eat; on the earth thou dost pour it as water.

Deuteronomy 16

¹‘Observe the month of Abib -- and thou hast made a passover to Jehovah thy God, for in the month of Abib hath Jehovah thy God brought thee out of Egypt by night;

²and thou hast sacrificed a passover to Jehovah thy God, of the flock, and of the herd, in the place which Jehovah doth choose to cause His name to tabernacle there.

³‘Thou dost not eat with it any fermented thing, seven days thou dost eat with it unleavened things, bread of affliction; for in haste thou hast come out of the land of Egypt; so that thou dost remember the day of thy coming out of the land of Egypt all days of thy life;

⁴and there is not seen with thee leaven in all thy border seven days, and there doth not remain of the flesh which thou dost sacrifice at evening on the first day till morning.

⁵‘Thou art not able to sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee,

⁶except at the place which Jehovah thy God doth choose to cause His name to tabernacle -- there thou dost sacrifice the passover in the evening, at the going in of the sun, the season of thy coming out of Egypt;

⁷and thou hast cooked and eaten in the place on which Jehovah thy God doth fix, and hast turned in the morning, and gone to thy tents;

⁸six days thou dost eat unleavened things, and on the seventh day is a restraint to Jehovah thy God; thou dost do no work.

⁹‘Seven weeks thou dost number to thee; from the beginning of the sickle among the standing corn thou dost begin to number seven weeks,

¹⁰and thou hast made the feast of weeks to Jehovah thy God, a tribute of a free-will offering of thy hand, which thou dost give, as Jehovah thy God doth bless thee.

¹¹And thou hast rejoiced before Jehovah thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy handmaid, and the Levite who is within thy gates, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are in thy midst, in the place which Jehovah thy God doth choose to cause His name to tabernacle there,

¹²and thou hast remembered that a servant thou hast been in Egypt, and hast observed and done these statutes.

¹³‘The feast of booths thou dost make for thee seven days, in thine in-gathering of thy threshing-floor, and of thy wine-vat;

¹⁴and thou hast rejoiced in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy handmaid, and the Levite, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within thy gates.

¹⁵Seven days thou dost feast before Jehovah thy God, in the place which Jehovah doth choose, for Jehovah thy God doth bless thee in all thine increase, and in every work of thy hands, and thou hast been only rejoicing.

¹⁶‘Three times in a year doth every one of thy males appear before Jehovah thy God in the place which He doth choose -- in the feast of unleavened things, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths; and they do not appear before Jehovah empty;

¹⁷each according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God, which He hath given to thee.

¹⁸‘Judges and authorities thou dost make to thee within all thy gates which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee, for thy tribes; and they have judged the people -- a righteous judgment.

¹⁹Thou dost not turn aside judgment; thou dost not discern faces, nor take a bribe, for the bribe blindeth the eyes of the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

²⁰Righteousness -- righteousness thou dost pursue, so that thou livest, and hast possessed the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee.

²¹‘Thou dost not plant for thee a shrine of any trees near the altar of Jehovah thy God, which thou makest for thyself,

²²and thou dost not raise up to thee any standing image which Jehovah thy God is hating.

Deuteronomy 17

¹‘Thou dost not sacrifice to Jehovah thy God ox or sheep in which there is a blemish -- any evil thing; for it is the abomination of Jehovah thy God.

²‘When there is found in thy midst, in one of thy cities which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee, a man or a woman who doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah thy God by transgressing His covenant,

³and he doth go and serve other gods, and doth bow himself to them, and to the sun, or to the moon, or to any of the host of the heavens, which I have not commanded --

⁴and it hath been declared to thee, and thou hast heard, and hast searched diligently, and lo, truth; the thing is established; this abomination hath been done in Israel --

⁵‘Then thou hast brought out that man, or that woman, who hath done this evil thing, unto thy gates -- the man or the woman -- and thou hast stoned them with stones, and they have died.

⁶By the mouth of two witnesses or of three witnesses is he who is dead put to death; he is not put to death by the mouth of one witness;

⁷the hand of the witnesses is on him, in the first place, to put him to death, and the hand of all the people last; and thou hast put away the evil thing out of thy midst.

⁸‘When anything is too hard for thee for judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke -- matters of strife within thy gates -- then thou hast risen, and gone up unto the place on which Jehovah thy God doth fix,

⁹and hast come in unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge who is in those days, and hast inquired, and they have declared to thee the word of judgment,

¹⁰and thou hast done according to the tenor of the word which they declare to thee (they of that place which Jehovah doth choose; and thou hast observed to do according to all that they direct thee.

¹¹‘According to the tenor of the law which they direct thee, and according to the judgment which they say to thee thou dost do; thou dost not turn aside from the word which they declare to thee, right or left.

¹²And the man who acteth with presumption, so as not to hearken unto the priest (who is standing to serve there Jehovah thy God), or unto the judge, even that man hath died, and thou hast put away the evil thing from Israel,

¹³and all the people do hear and fear, and do not presume any more.

¹⁴‘When thou comest in unto the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee, and hast possessed it, and dwelt in it, and thou hast said, Let me set over me a king like all the nations which are round about me, --

¹⁵thou dost certainly set over thee a king on whom Jehovah doth fix; from the midst of thy brethren thou dost set over thee a king; thou art not able to set over thee a stranger, who is not thy brother.

¹⁶‘Only, he doth not multiply to himself horses, nor cause the people to turn back to Egypt, so as to multiply horses, seeing Jehovah hath said to you, Ye do not add to turn back in this way any more.

¹⁷And he doth not multiply to himself wives, and his heart doth not turn aside, and silver and gold he doth not multiply to himself -- exceedingly.

¹⁸‘And it hath been, when he sitteth on the throne of his kingdom, that he hath written for himself the copy of this law, on a book, from that before the priests the Levites,

¹⁹and it hath been with him, and he hath read in it all days of his life, so that he doth learn to fear Jehovah his God, to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes, to do them;

²⁰so that his heart is not high above his brethren, and so as not to turn aside from the command, right or left, so that he prolongeth days over his kingdom, he and his sons, in the midst of Israel.