Clean and Unclean Animals

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

1Ye 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 an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all 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 roebuck, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the antelope, and the chamois. 6And every beast that parteth the hoof, and hath the hoof cloven in two, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that ye shall eat. 7Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the coney, 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 carcases ye shall not touch.

9These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales shall 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 eagle, and the gier eagle, and the ospray; 13and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind; 14and every raven after its kind; 15and the ostrich, and the night hawk, and the seamew, and the hawk after its kind; 16the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl; 17and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant; 18and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat. 19And all winged creeping things are unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten. 20Of all clean fowls 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 an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.

Giving Tithes

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

22Thou shalt surely tithe all the increase of thy seed, that which cometh forth of 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 thine 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 thine 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 thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase in the same year, and shalt 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, which 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 thine hand which thou doest.