17
pelicans, ospreys, cormorants,
18
storks, all types of herons, hoopoes, and bats.
19
Every swarming, winged insect is also unclean for you. They must never be eaten.
20
However, you may eat any [other kind of] flying creature that is clean.
21
Never eat any creature that dies naturally. You may give it to the foreigners who live in your cities, and they may eat it. You may also sell it to foreigners who are visiting. But you are people who are holy to the LORD your God. Never cook a young goat in its mother's milk.
22
Every year be sure to save a tenth of the crops harvested from whatever you plant in your fields.
23
Eat the tenth of your grain, new wine, and olive oil, and eat the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats in the presence of the LORD your God in the place he will choose to put his name. Then you will learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live.
24
But the place the LORD your God will choose to put his name may be too far away. He may bless you with so much that you can't carry a tenth of your income that far.
25
If so, exchange the tenth part of your income for silver. Take the silver with you, and go to the place the LORD your God will choose.
26
Use the silver to buy whatever you want: cattle, sheep, goats, wine, liquor--whatever you choose. Then you and your family will eat and enjoy yourselves there in the presence of the LORD your God.
27
Never forget to take care of the Levites who live in your cities. They have no land of their own as you have.