Clean and Unclean Animals

(Leviticus 11:1-47; Acts 10:9-16)

1You are the children of the LORD your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2For you are an holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a peculiar people to himself, above all the nations that are on the earth.

3You shall not eat any abominable thing. 4These are the beasts which you shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. 6And every beast that parts the hoof, and separates the cleft into two claws, and chews the cud among the beasts, that you shall eat. 7Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean to you. 8And the swine, because it divides the hoof, yet chews not the cud, it is unclean to you: you shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass.

9These you shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall you eat: 10And whatever has not fins and scales you may not eat; it is unclean to you.

11Of all clean birds you shall eat. 12But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, 13And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, 14And every raven after his kind, 15And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, 16The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, 17And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant, 18And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. 19And every creeping thing that flies is unclean to you: they shall not be eaten. 20But of all clean fowls you may eat.

21You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself: you shall give it to the stranger that is in your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to an alien: for you are an holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

Giving Tithes

(Leviticus 27:30-34; Deuteronomy 26:1-15; Nehemiah 13:10-14)

22You shall truly tithe all the increase of your seed, that the field brings forth year by year. 23And you shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of your corn, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herds and of your flocks; that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. 24And if the way be too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from you, which the LORD your God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD your God has blessed you: 25Then shall you turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose: 26And you shall bestow that money for whatever your soul lusts after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul desires: and you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you, and your household, 27And the Levite that is within your gates; you shall not forsake him; for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

28At the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase the same year, and shall lay it up within your gates: 29And the Levite, (because he has no part nor inheritance with you,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.