Read the Bible

Good and Bad Foods

¹ "You are the sons of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or cut the hair from your foreheads because of the dead. ² For you are a holy nation to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you to be His own nation out of all the nations on the earth.

³ "Do not eat any hated thing. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: the bull, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ And you may eat any animal that has a parted foot divided in two and that chews its food again. ⁷ But you must not eat of those that chew their food again or have a divided foot: the camel, the rabbit and the rock badger. For though they eat their food again, they do not have a divided foot. They are unclean to you. ⁸ And do not eat the pig, because it has a divided foot but does not chew its food again. It is unclean for you. Do not eat any of their flesh or touch their dead bodies.

⁹ "Of all that are in the water, you may eat anything that has fins and scales. ¹⁰ But do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.

¹¹ "You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But these are the ones you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³ the red kite, the falcon, every kind of kite, ¹⁴ every kind of raven, ¹⁵ the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, every kind of hawk, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the vulture that eats dead flesh, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, every kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹ And all flying bugs are unclean for you. Do not eat them. ²⁰ But you may eat any clean bird.

²¹ "Do not eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger in your town, so he may eat it. Or you may sell it to a person from another land. For you are a holy nation to the Lord your God.

"Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

The Law of the Tenth Part

²² "Be sure to give a tenth part to the Lord of all you plant that comes from your field every year. ²³ Before the Lord your God, at the place He chooses to put His name, you may eat the tenth part of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first-born of your cattle and your flock. Then you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far away for you to bring the tenth part of all the good things you have received, ²⁵ you should trade it for money. Then tie the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶ You may spend the money for whatever your heart may desire, for bulls, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And there you and those of your house may eat before the Lord and be full of joy. ²⁷ Do not stop caring for the Levite who is in your town for he has no share of what is given to you.

²⁸ "At the end of every third year you should bring the tenth part of that year's grain into your towns. ²⁹ And the Levite who has no share of what is given to you, and the stranger, and the child without parents, and the woman whose husband has died, who are in your towns, may come and eat and be filled. Then the Lord your God will bring good to you in all the work done by your hands.