Chronological Plan

¹“You are the children of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead.

²For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³“You shall not eat any detestable thing.

⁴These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

⁵the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

⁶And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals.

⁷Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you.

⁸Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses.

⁹“These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales.

¹⁰And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹“All clean birds you may eat.

¹²But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard,

¹³the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds;

¹⁴every raven after its kind;

¹⁵the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds;

¹⁶the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl,

¹⁷the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl,

¹⁸the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.

¹⁹“Also every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.

²⁰“You may eat all clean birds.

²¹“You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. “ You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²²“You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year.

²³And you shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

²⁴But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the LORD your God has blessed you,

²⁵then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses.

²⁶And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

²⁷You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

²⁸“At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates.

²⁹And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

¹“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts.

²And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the LORD’s release.

³Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother,

⁴except when there may be no poor among you; for the LORD will greatly bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance—

⁵only if you carefully obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today.

⁶For the LORD your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

⁷“If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother,

⁸but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.

⁹Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the LORD against you, and it become sin among you.

¹⁰You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand.

¹¹For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’

¹²“If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

¹³And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed;

¹⁴you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the LORD your God has blessed you with, you shall give to him.

¹⁵You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today.

¹⁶And if it happens that he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you,

¹⁷then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.

¹⁸It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you; for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. Then the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.

¹⁹“All the firstborn males that come from your herd and your flock you shall sanctify to the LORD your God; you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

²⁰You and your household shall eat it before the LORD your God year by year in the place which the LORD chooses.

²¹But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

²²You may eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean person alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer.

²³Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water.

¹“Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

²Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to put His name.

³You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

⁴And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.

⁵“You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you;

⁶but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.

⁷And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.

⁸Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.

⁹“You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.

¹⁰Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.

¹¹You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.

¹²And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

¹³“You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress.

¹⁴And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.

¹⁵Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

¹⁶“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.

¹⁷Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.

¹⁸“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment.

¹⁹You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

²⁰You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

²¹“You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the LORD your God.

²²You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.