Knox Bible

1

Learn to carry yourselves as the children of the Lord your God. Do not dis-figure yourselves or shave your heads bare when a man dies,

2

you, a people set apart for the Lord, chosen out of all nations on earth to be his very own.

3

Do not eat any food which brings defilement.

4

You may eat such beasts as the ox, the sheep, and the goat,

5

red deer and roe, gazelle and wild goat, addax and oryx and zemer;✻

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any creature which has cloven hoofs and chews the cud.

7

You must not eat those which have the hoofs single, even though they chew the cud; the camel and the hare and the rock-rabbit, and all other ruminants that do not divide the hoof, you must count unclean.

8

And the sow, which has cloven hoofs but does not chew the cud, is also unclean; you must not eat the flesh of such beasts, or touch their carcases.

9

Among the creatures that live in water, you may eat those that have fins and scales;

10

whatever lacks fins and scales is unclean, not for your eating.

11

There are birds you may eat without fear of defilement;

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others which you must avoid as unclean, eagle and griffon and osprey,

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kite and falcon and vulture and all else of their kind,

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anything that belongs to the raven tribe,

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ostrich, night-owl, sea-mew, and hawks of every kind,

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stork, swan, ibis,

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cormorant, coot, night-jar

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and pelican, with curlews of every kind; the hoopoe, besides, and the bat.

19

Creeping things that have wings are unclean, and must not be eaten.

20

Any meat that is not unclean may be used for food,

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except what has fallen dead; make a present of this to some neighbour, not of Israel’s race, or sell it to an alien, it is not for your eating, a people set apart for the Lord your God.

Seething a kid in its dam’s milk is a rite forbidden thee.

22

Every year, thou wilt set apart a tenth of all the crops thy land yields,

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and come to the place the Lord thy God has chosen for the sanctuary of his name, to feast on it there in his presence; a tenth part of thy corn and wine and oil, and the first-fruits of thy herds and flocks; so thou wilt learn to fear the Lord thy God continually.

24

But perhaps the journey will be too long, the place which he has chosen too far distant, and the load too great, so bountiful has the Lord thy God been to thee.

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Why then, sell all this tithe of thine, and bring the proceeds of the sale with thee to the place he has chosen.

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With this money thou mayst buy all thou wilt, oxen and sheep, wine and mead, to thy heart’s content; and on these thou shalt feast in the presence of the Lord, thou and all thy household making good cheer together,

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and the Levite, too, that dwells in thy city; do not neglect the Levite, that has no part or lot such as thou hast.

28

Every third year, thou wilt set apart a fresh tithe of all the revenue thou then hast, and lay it by at home,

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so that the Levite, who has no part or lot such as thou hast, and the wanderer and the orphan and the widow that are thy fellow-citizens, may eat and have their fill. So, to whatever employment thou dost turn thy hand, the blessing of the Lord thy God shall be with thee.