Deuteronomy 14 :: New International Version (NIV)

Clean and Unclean Food

Deu 14:1You are the children of the LORD your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead,

Deu 14:2for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.

(Lev 11:1–47 )

Deu 14:3

Deu 14:3Do not eat any detestable thing.

Deu 14:4

Deu 14:4These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

Deu 14:5

Deu 14:5the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.[fn]

Deu 14:6

Deu 14:6You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud.

Deu 14:7

Deu 14:7However, of those that chew the cud or that have a divided hoof you may not eat the camel, the rabbit or the hyrax. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you.

Deu 14:8

Deu 14:8The pig is also unclean; although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses.

Deu 14:9

Deu 14:9Of all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins and scales.

Deu 14:10

Deu 14:10But anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; for you it is unclean.

Deu 14:11

Deu 14:11You may eat any clean bird.

Deu 14:12

Deu 14:12But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,

Deu 14:13

Deu 14:13the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon,

Deu 14:14

Deu 14:14any kind of raven,

Deu 14:15

Deu 14:15the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,

Deu 14:16

Deu 14:16the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,

Deu 14:17

Deu 14:17the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,

Deu 14:18

Deu 14:18the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

Deu 14:19

Deu 14:19All flying insects are unclean to you; do not eat them.

Deu 14:20

Deu 14:20But any winged creature that is clean you may eat.

Deu 14:21

Deu 14:21Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Tithes

Deu 14:22

Deu 14:22Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.

Deu 14:23

Deu 14:23Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.

Deu 14:24

Deu 14:24But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away),

Deu 14:25

Deu 14:25then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose.

Deu 14:26

Deu 14:26Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.

Deu 14:27

Deu 14:27And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.

Deu 14:28

Deu 14:28At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns,

Deu 14:29

Deu 14:29so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(14:5)

The precise identification of some of the birds and animals in this chapter is uncertain.

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