1You are the children of the LORD your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead,2for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.3Do not eat any detestable thing.4These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,5the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.6You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud.7However, of those that chew the cud or that have a split hoof completely divided you may not eat the camel, the rabbit or the coney. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a split hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you.8The pig is also unclean; although it has a split hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses.9Of all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins and scales.10But anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; for you it is unclean.11You may eat any clean bird.12But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,13the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon,14any kind of raven,15the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,16the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,17the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,18the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.19All flying insects that swarm are unclean to you; do not eat them.20But any winged creature that is clean you may eat.21Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.22Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.23Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.24But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away),25then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose.26Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.27And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.28At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns,29so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Scripture quoted by permission. The passage above is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online)