Knox Bible

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This was a message the Lord gave to Moses and Aaron

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for the sons of Israel: Among all the living creatures on earth, these only are to be your food.

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Among the beasts, those which chew the cud and have cloven hoofs.

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Such beasts as the camel, ruminants with their hoofs single, you must hold unclean, not to be eaten;

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the rock-rabbit, too, is unclean, a ruminant without cloven hoofs,

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and the hare in the same way.

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The sow for the opposite reason; it has cloven hoofs but does not chew the cud.

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You are not to eat the flesh of these animals, or touch their carcases; you must regard them as unclean.

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Everything that lives in the water is food for your eating as long as it has fins and scales, whether it be sea or river or lake fish.

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Creatures that live and move in the water without scales or fins you must hold in abomination,

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so abominable that you will not eat their flesh or even touch their carcases;

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there is defilement in all that lacks fins and scales.

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Of the birds, you must avoid these as forbidden food, the eagle, the griffon, the osprey,

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the falcon and the vulture with all else of their kind,

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anything that belongs to the raven tribe,

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the ostrich,✻ the night-owl, the sea-mew, every kind of hawk,

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the horned owl, the cormorant, the ibis,

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the swan, the pelican, the coot,

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the stork, birds of the curlew kind, the hoopoe and the bat.

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The winged things that are four-footed you must hold in abomination,

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except those which have the hinder legs longer, and leap from one spot to another;

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these you may eat, the locust and all its kindred, bruchus or attacus or ophiomachus.

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But winged creatures that must walk on four feet you are to hold in detestation;

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no one that touches their carcases but is defiled thereby, and must count himself unclean till the evening comes;

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even if necessity bids him carry such a carcase, he must wash his clothes afterwards, and count himself unclean till set of sun.

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Any beast that has hoofs, but not cloven hoofs, and does not chew the cud, is to be unclean, and the man who touches it, defiled.

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Any four-footed beast that walks on its paws is to be unclean, and to touch its carcase is to be defiled till evening comes;

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whoever carries such a carcase must wash his clothes, and count himself unclean till set of sun; all these things you must hold contaminated.

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And there are things that creep along the ground which you must hold unclean, every weasel and mouse and skink,

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shrew-mouse and chameleon and newt and lizard and mole.

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All these are unclean; the man who touches one when it is dead is defiled till evening comes.

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Let such a carcase fall on a bucket or a garment or a skin or a piece of sackcloth or anything else that is in use, and it is defiled; it must be washed in water, and not counted as clean even then till set of sun.

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If it defiles an earthenware pot by falling into it, the pot must be broken.

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Whatever you drink out of such a vessel, and even the food you eat, if water out of such a vessel is poured over it, becomes unclean.

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Wherever such a carcase falls it brings uncleanness; oven or chafing dish that is contaminated by it must be destroyed.

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Springs or cisterns in which water is collected remain undefiled by it, but anyone who touches the carcase itself becomes unclean.

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So, too, if it falls on seed-corn, there is no defilement,

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unless someone has first watered the seed-corn, and then the carcase falls on it; if so, it becomes unclean at once.

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Whoever touches the carcase of an animal that falls dead, though it be one of those you are allowed to eat, is defiled till evening comes;

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and anyone who eats of it, or carries it, must wash his clothes, and until evening comes count himself unclean.

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All that creeps along the ground must be held in abomination, and never used for food;

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whether it walks on four feet with its belly close to the ground, or has many feet, or glides along, it is no food for you, you must hold it abominable.

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Keep your persons undefiled, touching no such thing, for fear of contamination.

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I am the Lord your God; you must be set apart, the servants of a God who is set apart. Do not contaminate yourselves with any of these beasts that creep along the ground.

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I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt;

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I am set apart and you must be set apart like me.

Such is the rule that governs the use of beast and bird, and all the life that moves through the water or creeps along the ground,

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teaching you the difference between clean and unclean, what food you may eat and what food you must reject.