Deuteronomy 14 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

You are Yahweh your God's children. Don't cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead.

Because you are a people set apart for Yahweh your God. Out of every people on the face of the earth, Yahweh chose you to be his treasured people.

Don't eat anything that is detestable.

These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided into two parts and also chews the cud.

But these you must not eat, even though they chew the cud or have a split hoof: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger — because they chew the cud but don't have a split hoof, they are off-limits for you.

And the pig — because it has a split hoof but doesn't chew the cud, it is off-limits for you. Don't eat their meat, and don't even touch their carcasses.

Of everything that lives in the water, you may eat these: anything with fins and scales, you may eat.

But anything without fins and scales, you must not eat — it is off-limits for you.

You may eat any bird that is permitted.

But these are the ones you must not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

the red kite, the black kite, and every kind of falcon,

every kind of raven,

the ostrich, the nighthawk, the seagull, and every kind of hawk,

the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,

the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,

the stork, every kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.

All winged swarming creatures are off-limits for you — they must not be eaten.

But any winged creature that is permitted, you may eat.

Don't eat anything that dies on its own. You may give it to the foreigner living in your towns and they can eat it, or you may sell it to an outsider. Because you are a people set apart for Yahweh your God. Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

Be sure to set aside a tenth of everything your fields produce each year.

Eat the tenth of your grain, your new wine, and your olive oil, along with the firstborn of your herds and flocks, in the presence of Yahweh your God at the place he will choose to establish his name. This is so you learn to honor Yahweh your God at all times.

But if the journey is too long for you and you can't carry it all — because the place Yahweh your God will choose to establish his name is too far away from you when Yahweh your God has been generous to you —

then convert it into silver. Take the silver in hand and go to the place Yahweh your God will choose.

Use that silver to buy whatever you want — cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, anything your appetite craves. Then eat there in the presence of Yahweh your God, and celebrate with your household.

And don't neglect the Levite living in your towns, because he has no land allotment or inheritance like you do.

At the end of every three years, bring out the full tenth of your produce for that year and store it in your towns.

Then the Levite — who has no land allotment or inheritance like you — along with the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow living in your towns, will come and eat and be satisfied. Do this so that Yahweh your God will be generous to you in everything you do.