Tanakh & Talmud. Various Authors

shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it out upon the earth as water. ²⁵Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord. ²⁶Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the Lord shall choose; ²⁷and thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord thy God; and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out against the altar of the Lord thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh. ²⁸Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the eyes of the Lord thy God.

      ²⁹When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest in to dispossess them, and thou dispossessest them, and dwellest in their land; ³⁰take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying: 'How used these nations to serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.' ³¹Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God; for every abomination to the Lord, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.

       13All this word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

      ²If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams—and he give thee a sign or a wonder, ³and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke unto thee—saying: 'Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them'; ⁴thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God putteth you to proof, to know whether ye do love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁵After the Lord your God shall ye walk, and Him shall ye fear, and His commandments shall ye keep, and unto His voice shall ye hearken, and Him shall ye serve, and unto Him shall ye cleave. ⁶And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken perversion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, to draw thee aside out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee.

      ⁷If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, that is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying: 'Let us go and serve other gods, 'which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; ⁸of the gods of the peoples that are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; ⁹thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; ¹⁰but thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹¹And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to draw thee away from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹²And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is in the midst of thee.

      ¹³If thou shalt hear tell concerning one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God giveth thee to dwell there, saying: ¹⁴'Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of thee, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying: Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known'; ¹⁵then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in the midst of thee; ¹⁶thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. ¹⁷And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the broad place thereof, and shall burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, unto the Lord thy God; and it shall be a heap for ever; it shall not be built again. ¹⁸And there shall cleave nought of the devoted thing to thy hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as He hath sworn unto thy fathers; ¹⁹ when thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all His commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God.

      14Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. ²For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be His own treasure out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.

      ³Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. ⁴These are the beasts which ye may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, ⁵the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the antelope, and the mountain-sheep. ⁶And every beast that parteth the hoof, and hath the hoof wholly cloven in two, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that ye may eat. ⁷Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the rock-badger, because they chew the cud but part not the hoof, they are unclean unto you; ⁸and the swine, because he parteth the hoof but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto you; of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcasses ye shall not touch.

      ⁹These ye may eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales may ye eat; ¹⁰and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye shall not eat; it is unclean unto you.

      ¹¹Of all clean birds ye may eat. ¹²But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the great vulture, and the bearded vulture, and the ospray; ¹³and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kinds; ¹⁴and every raven after its kinds; ¹⁵and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kinds; ¹⁶the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl; ¹⁷and the pelican, and the carrion-vulture, and the cormorant; ¹⁸and the stork, and the heron after its kinds, and the hoopoe, and the bat. ¹⁹And all winged swarming things are unclean unto you; they shall not be eaten. ²⁰Of all clean winged things ye may eat.

      ²¹Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself; thou mayest give it unto the stranger that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner; for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.

      ²²Thou shalt surely tithe all the increase of thy seed, that which is brought forth in the field year by year. ²³And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which He shall choose to cause His name to dwell there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd and of thy flock; that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. ²⁴And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, because the place is too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set His name there, when the Lord thy God shall bless thee; ²⁵then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thy hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. ²⁶And thou shalt bestow the money for whatsoever thy soul desireth, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul asketh of thee; and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy household. ²⁷And the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee.

      ²⁸At the end of every three years, even in the same year, thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase, and shall lay it up within thy gates. ²⁹And the Levite, because he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou doest.

      15At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. ²And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he hath lent unto his neighbour; he shall not exact it of