Clean and Unclean Animals

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

1Ye are sons of Jehovah your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for a dead person. 2For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, and thee hath Jehovah chosen for a people of possession unto himself, out of all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth.

3Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. 4These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat; 5the hart, and the gazelle, and the stag, and the wild goat, and the dishon and the oryx, and the wild sheep. 6And every beast that hath cloven hoofs, and the feet quite split open into double hoofs, [and] which cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that ye shall eat. 7Only these ye shall not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those with hoofs cloven and split open: the camel, and the hare, and the rock-badger; for they chew the cud, but have not cloven hoofs -- they shall be unclean unto you; 8and the swine, for it hath cloven hoofs, yet cheweth not the cud -- it shall be unclean unto you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch.

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

11All clean birds shall ye eat. 12But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the sea-eagle, 13and the falcon, and the kite, and the black kite after its kind; 14and every raven after its kind; 15and the female ostrich, and the male ostrich, and the sea-gull, and the hawk after its kind; 16the owl, and the ibis and the swan, 17and the pelican, and the carrion vulture, and the gannet, 18and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat. 19And every winged crawling thing shall be unclean unto you; they shall not be eaten. 20All clean fowls shall ye eat.

21Ye shall eat of no carcase; thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is within thy gates, that he may eat it, or sell it unto a foreigner; for thou art a holy people to Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

Giving Tithes

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

22Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, the produce of the field, year by year. 23And thou shalt eat before Jehovah thy God, in the place which he will choose to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear Jehovah thy God continually. 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 Jehovah thy God will choose to set his name there, when Jehovah thy God blesseth thee; 25then shalt thou give it for money, and bind the money together in thy hand, and go to the place which Jehovah thy God will choose, 26and thou shalt give the money for whatever thy soul desireth, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever thy soul asketh of thee; and thou shalt eat there before Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thy house. 27And thou shalt not forsake the Levite that is within thy gates; for he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee.

28At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates; 29and the Levite -- for 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 Jehovah thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou doest.