Deuteronomy 14

⁸So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

⁵Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies.

²⁶You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁶and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

⁵eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their garments, and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, carrying grain offerings and frankincense for the house of the Lord.

¹⁰Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

⁶For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

²⁶You are to be holy to Me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.

⁵Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁶And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”

¹⁸And today the Lord has proclaimed that you are His people and treasured possession as He promised, that you are to keep all His commandments,

¹⁹that He will set you high in praise and name and honor above all the nations He has made, and that you will be a holy people to the Lord your God, as He has promised.

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

²“Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and tell them: Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

¹⁴“Ah, Lord God,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

²⁵You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.

¹⁴I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.

⁴³Do not defile yourselves by any crawling creature; do not become unclean or defiled by them.

²⁸But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—

⁴sitting among the graves, spending nights in secret places, eating the meat of pigs and polluted broth from their bowls.

²³ten fat oxen, twenty range oxen, and a hundred sheep, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened poultry.

²“Say to the Israelites, ‘Of all the beasts of the earth, these ones you may eat:

³You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.

¹⁴“No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

¹⁷“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

¹Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.

²But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.

¹He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound judgment.

⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!

²⁶But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

¹⁶They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

⁵The rock badger, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you.

¹⁸With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

¹⁹They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

²²Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

²³Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

²⁶Every animal with hooves not completely divided or that does not chew the cud is unclean for you. Whoever touches any of them will be unclean.

²⁷All the four-footed animals that walk on their paws are unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until evening,

¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

¹⁶He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.

³Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood; whoever offers frankincense is like one who blesses an idol. Indeed, they have chosen their own ways and delighted in their abominations.

²²Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

⁴sitting among the graves, spending nights in secret places, eating the meat of pigs and polluted broth from their bowls.

¹⁷“Those who consecrate and purify themselves to enter the groves—to follow one in the center of those who eat the flesh of swine and vermin and rats—will perish together,” declares the Lord.

⁹Of all the creatures that live in the water, whether in the seas or in the streams, you may eat anything with fins and scales.

¹⁰But the following among all the teeming life and creatures in the water are detestable to you: everything in the seas or streams that does not have fins and scales.

¹³Additionally, you are to detest the following birds, and they must not be eaten because they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

¹⁴the kite, any kind of falcon,

²⁹I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.

¹⁹Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

²⁰All flying insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you.

²¹However, you may eat the following kinds of flying insects that walk on all fours: those having jointed legs above their feet for hopping on the ground.

¹⁹Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²⁶Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

⁸He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, which would make him unclean. I am the Lord.

²for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

⁷And the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by Him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, and times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people has finally been shattered, all these things will be completed.”

²¹Behold, I have given to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they do, the service of the Tent of Meeting.

⁶To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

¹²When you have finished laying aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat and be filled within your gates.

¹³Then you shall declare in the presence of the Lord your God, “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all the commandments You have given me. I have not transgressed or forgotten Your commandments.

³⁷Moreover, we will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the house of our God the firstfruits of our dough, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees, and of our new wine and oil. A tenth of our produce belongs to the Levites, so that they shall receive tithes in all the towns where we labor.

¹⁷Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

³⁰Thus any tithe from the land, whether from the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.

³¹If a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he must add a fifth to its value.

⁵Instead, you must seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

⁶To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

¹⁰The day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, “Gather the people before Me to hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children.”

¹⁹You must set apart to the Lord your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to shear the firstborn of your flock.

²⁰Each year you and your household are to eat it before the Lord your God in the place the Lord will choose.

¹⁷Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

¹⁸Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the Lord your God in all you do,

²¹If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want.

⁵Instead, you must seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

³¹And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

²⁴Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.

⁷Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works:

¹²Then Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves.

²⁰When the Lord your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want.

²¹If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want.

¹⁴They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

¹²“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.

¹³“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

¹¹So you shall rejoice—you, the Levite, and the foreigner dwelling among you—in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.

²⁹Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the Lord your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.

²⁰Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.

¹²And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

¹⁸Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the Lord your God in all you do,

¹⁹and be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.

⁶Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word must share in all good things with his instructor.

¹⁷Elders who lead effectively are worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

²²You must be sure to set aside a tenth of all the produce brought forth each year from your fields.

¹²When you have finished laying aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat and be filled within your gates.

¹³Then you shall declare in the presence of the Lord your God, “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all the commandments You have given me. I have not transgressed or forgotten Your commandments.

⁴“Go to Bethel and transgress; rebel even more at Gilgal! Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.

¹⁰Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand.

²⁷And do not neglect the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

¹⁷Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and He will repay the lender.

¹⁰Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.

¹¹I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Hosts.

¹²When you have finished laying aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat and be filled within your gates.

¹³Then you shall declare in the presence of the Lord your God, “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all the commandments You have given me. I have not transgressed or forgotten Your commandments.

¹¹and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.